HOUSTON, TX – A Missouri City pharmacy owner and three Houston pharmacists were sentenced for running a pill mill operation that illegally sold over half a million opioid pills, including hydrocodone and oxycodone, to drug traffickers and paid straw patients.
According to the Department of Justice, Arthur Billings, 61, owner and pharmacist-in-charge of Health Fit Pharmacy, was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison and ordered to forfeit $2.6 million. Billings admitted to operating the Houston-based, cash-only pharmacy as part of a four-year conspiracy to unlawfully distribute controlled substances and to submitting false disability benefit claims.
Court documents reveal that Health Fit Pharmacy repeatedly filled prescriptions—many fraudulent and issued under stolen physician identities—for individuals sent by drug traffickers. These individuals posed as patients and paid hundreds of dollars per prescription. Despite multiple warnings from the Texas State Board of Pharmacy, the Texas Department of Public Safety, and the DEA, Health Fit continued its illegal activities.
Three additional Health Fit pharmacists were sentenced:
- Deanna Winfield-Gates, 56, sentenced to six years in prison and ordered to forfeit $60,000. A federal jury convicted her of conspiracy to distribute opioids.
- Jeremy Branch, 38, received 22 months in prison and must forfeit $68,931.44. He served as pharmacist-in-charge in 2017.
- Frank Cooper, 55, was sentenced to 20 months in prison and ordered to forfeit $5,000.
The case was investigated by the DEA and prosecuted by the DOJ’s Criminal Division Fraud Section. More details on health care fraud prosecutions can be found at justice.gov/criminal-fraud/health-care-fraud-unit.
