RALEIGH — A 51-year-old Lumberton man will spend 11 years in prison for conspiring with a doctor to distribute prescription drugs in Robeson County.
Anthony Andrews pled guilty on Oct. 11, 2016, to conspiracy to distribute and possession with intent to distribute prescription drugs, according to a press release from Robert J. Higdon, United States attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice’s Eastern District of North Carolina. Andrews was indicted on those charges on March 15, 2016. He was sentenced Thursday.
Andrews will spend three years on supervised probation after his release from prison, according to the statement.
According to Higdon, Andrews worked with Dr. Donovan Dixon, a Fayetteville doctor who had a Pembroke office, to illegally distribute oxycodone. Higdon said names were provided to Dixon, who wrote prescriptions for the drugs in exchange for money. Andrews then sold the drugs.
Dixon was sentenced Aug. 27 to up to 20 years in prison after he was convicted in April of conspiracy to unlawfully distribute oxycodone and 20 counts of unlawful distribution of oxycodone outside the scope of professional practice and not for a legitimate medical purpose.
Dixon operated a family medical practice at 812 Candy Park Road in Pembroke from 2012 until April 6, 2015, when his ability to prescribe controlled substances was limited by the North Carolina Medical Board. The Drug Enforcement Administration began investigating Dixon after it noticed that four of the top 10 oxycodone-prescribing pharmacies in North Carolina were located in the Lumberton area.
Evidence presented during the trial showed that Dixon prescribed high-strength, high-dosage amounts of oxycodone with little or no medical examination. Multiple people testified they had never met Dixon despite the fact that hundreds of prescriptions had been issued in their names.
The case against Andrews was conducted by the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Tactical Diversion Squad. Additional assistance came from State Bureau of Investigation, the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigations, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, the Robeson County Sheriff’s Office, and the Fayetteville Police Department.