MIAMI — A photo released by federal prosecutors shows a burnt-out letter “P” on the sign of Chans Pharmacy in Pembroke Pines, reading simply “HARMACY.” Perhaps it was a fitting label for a storefront with an owner convicted of illegally distributing hundreds of thousands of Oxycodone pills through it and another Broward location.
A South Florida federal jury convicted Olushola Yusuf, 60, of Tampa, of conspiracy to illegally distribute drugs and five counts of illegal drug distribution on Wednesday. She‘s staring down the possibility of spending the rest of her life in federal prison.
Authorities said Yusuf owned Chans, located at 2092 N. University Drive, as well as Striderite Pharmacy ― legally Boots LLC ― at 7326 Royal Palm Blvd. in Margate.
At those stores, she dispensed “at least 326,079 pills” of the most powerful dose of the potent and addictive opiate to “nearly all her pharmacy customers,” many of whom drove long distances to get the drug filled, prosecutors said.
None of them had a medical need for the pain reliever, they said.
“Some customers paid as much as $1,300 a month in cash to Yusuf for the drugs. And some customers were drug dealers, who picked up oxycodone pills purportedly on behalf of dozens of patients at a time who were not present,“ a news release from the U.S. Department of Justice states. ”According to witnesses at trial, Yusuf kept the doors to her pharmacies locked during business hours, directing employees only to open the door for certain identified customers.”
Authorities said she continued these practices despite warnings from employees and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
“Olushola Yusuf did not simply ignore red flags. She built her business around them,” U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones said in the news release. “She knowingly flooded South Florida communities with more than 335,000 high-dose oxycodone pills, even after her employees and the DEA warned her about the dangers of her conduct.”
Yusuf, following her conviction, now faces the possibility of a 20-year sentence on each count: up to 120 years behind bars. She’s set to be sentenced on Oct. 14.
As of Thursday, she was being held in the Broward Sheriff’s Office’s Paul Rein Detention Facility in Pompano Beach on behalf of the U.S. Marshals Service, agency records show.
Authorities said a co-defendant, Saman Gimenez, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to illegally distribute drugs and is also scheduled to be sentenced in October.
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