WILKES-BARRE, Pa -- A doctor in Luzerne County is being credited for sparking an investigation into an illegal prescription opioid drug ring.
Now the state's attorney general has charged 10 people in a fake prescription drug scam that spanned 17 counties here in Pennsylvania.
Doctor Jolly Ombao is an anesthesiologist who specializes in pain medicine and works for Geisinger Health System in Luzerne County.
Now according to the state attorney general`s office he can add crime fighter to his resume for his role in taking down an illegal prescription opioid drug ring.
“It was last summer, I think it was June of 2017 that I first got this call from the pharmacist that somebody maybe forging scripts under my name,” said Dr. Ombao.
The AG`s office say Dr. Ombao reported this to its office the day after getting that call which launched its investigation in finding if someone was passing fraudulent forged prescriptions.
While the AG`s office was doing that, Dr. Ombao was doing his own job in bringing the issue to light.
“I started calling the pharmacists around our area here, in the northeast to say, hey somebody may have gotten a copy of my DEA number and is forging scripts around the area,” said Dr. Ombao.
Now the AG`s office have charged 10 people mostly all from Philadelphia for running that illegal drug mill by passing those fake prescriptions during a nine-month period from 2016 to 2017.
Those bad prescriptions were used in 17 counties including Wayne, Lackawanna and Luzerne.
The attorney general`s office says Fairview Township police joined the investigation back in October of 2016 when officers were called to a Rite Aid here in Mountain Top for the report of a fake prescription for painkillers.
The AG`s office says the suspects used multiple names of real doctors to fill opioid prescriptions all without the doctor`s knowledge.
Dr. Ombao is just happy he was part of ending the drug mill.
“A high school kid, a middle school kid, gets ahold of this at a party and then accidentally overdoses and the script was because someone used my name and my identity,” said Dr. Ombao.
The AG`s office says of the 10 charged, four are still at large.
Geisinger officials say due to the opioid crisis, it has cut the amount of opioid prescription it gives to patients in half over the last few years.