Pharmacy Owner and 3 Pharmacists Sentence to Prison for Pill Mill Scheme

Four Texas pharmacists, including one pharmacy owner, have been sentenced to prison for unlawful distribution of more than half a million opioid pills and other prescription drugs.

Just the Facts

The pharmacy owner, Arthur Billings, 61, pleaded guilty to being part of a 4-year conspiracy to unlawfully dispense and distribute hydrocodone and oxycodone, as well as making false statements in an application for disability benefits. Billings was the owner, operator, and pharmacist-in-charge of Health Fit Pharmacy, a cash-only pill mill. Drug traffickers posing as patients would pay hundreds of dollars per controlled substance prescription. The traffickers would then sell the pills on the black market.

The prescriptions used to obtain the drugs were often fraudulent, sometimes issued in the names of physicians whose identities were stolen. Despite warnings from the Texas State Board of Pharmacy, the Texas Department of Public Safety, and the Drug Enforcement Agency, the pharmacy continued its illegal operations until the arrest of Billings and his co-conspirators. Billings was sentenced to 12 years in prison and ordered to forfeit $2.6 million.

Billings worked with 3 pharmacist co-conspirators: Deanna Winfield Gates, 56; Jeremy Branch, 38; and Frank Cooper, 55. Gates, a relief pharmacist at Health Fit, was convicted by a federal jury of conspiracy to unlawfully distribute and dispense hydrocodone and oxycodone. She was found to have dispensed thousands of doses of addictive and dangerous drugs. Gates was sentenced to 6 years in prison and order to forfeit $60 000.

Branch, who served as pharmacist-in-charge at Health Fit for much of 2017, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to unlawfully distribute and dispense hydrocodone and oxycodone. He was sentenced to 22 months in prison and ordered to forfeit $69 000.

Cooper, a relief pharmacist at Health Fit, also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to unlawfully distribute and dispense hydrocodone and oxycodone. He was sentenced to 20 months in prison and ordered to forfeit $5000.

“Pharmacies exist to heal the sick, not to fuel addiction and line the pockets of drug traffickers,” said DEA Administrator Terrance Cole, in a press release. “These defendants betrayed their communities by turning a pharmacy into a pill mill, flooding our streets with over half a million opioid pills, and leaving a trail of addiction, abuse, and tragedy. DEA remains steadfast in its commitment to bring to justice those responsible for the country’s opioid crisis.”

The Takeaway

The Department of Justice continues to prioritize prosecution of individuals who exploit federal health care programs or engage in fraud. The Fraud Section leads the Criminal Division’s efforts to combat health care fraud through the Health Care Fraud Strike Force Program. Since its inception in March 2007, the program—comprising 9 strike forces operating in 27 federal districts—has charged more than 5800 defendants who collectively have billed federal health care programs and private insurers more than $30 billion.

Reference

Pharmacy owner and pharmacists sentenced for pill mill scheme involving hundreds of thousands of opioid pills. Press release. Office of Public Affairs, US Department of Justice. Published September 25, 2025. Accessed October 28, 2025. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/pharmacy-owner-and-pharmacists-sentenced-pill-mill-scheme-involving-hundreds-thousands