Upper Marlboro Doctor Sentenced For Selling Prescriptions From D.C. Medical Office

UPPER MARLBORO, MD — Ndubuisi Joseph Okafor, a 65-year-old physician from Upper Marlboro, was sentenced in U.S. District Court to 18 years in prison for illegally distributing prescriptions for narcotics in exchange for cash from his Northwest Washington, D.C., medical clinic.

A jury found Okafor guilty on March 21 of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances (outside the course of professional practice), maintaining a drug-involved premises and 22 counts of unlawful distribution of controlled substances (oxycodone and promethazine with codeine). In addition to the 18-year prison term, Okafor was ordered to serve three years of supervised release to pay a special assessment and to forfeit $213,173.97, according to prosecutors.

According to court documents and evidence at trial, between May 2021 and April of 2023, Okafor was the sole practitioner and owner of Okafor Medical Associates, an internal medicine clinic in Northwest, Washington, D.C. The U.S. Attorney’s Office, the HHS-OIG and FBI began investigating Okafor for illegal distribution of controlled substances after it received information from law enforcement agencies nationwide regarding prescriptions from Okafor being connected to local drug trafficking networks, the prosecution shared.

Between Feb. 18, 2022, and Nov. 30, 2022, the FBI sent confidential sources and undercover agents into Okafor’s medical practice for walk-in appointments. Each individual was prescribed opioids by Okafor after minimal examination. An investigation revealed that Okafor was operating a nationwide drug distribution scheme where he would prescribe opioids to numerous individuals using false identities who Okafor knew was diverting the medication, prosecutors reported.

Okafor’s activity spanned at least 45 states and resulted in hundreds of thousands of units of oxycodone and promethazine with codeine liquid prescribed nationwide. Okafor was convicted of distribution of opioids to undercover sources, numerous uncharged co-conspirators and to a civilian patient. Okafor also was convicted of conspiracy and maintaining a drug-involved premises. Evidence at trial also established that, after Okafor was notified by the D.C. Board of Health that a patient's family member had filed a complaint against him, he created backdated medical records for that patient to justify his prescribing the prescriptions, the prosecution stated.

The investigation also resulted in the suspension of Okafor’s DEA registration number in September 2023 as he was deemed to be a threat to public health and safety.