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Press Release

Peru, Ill., Physician Indicted On Federal Charges For Allegedly Illegally Dispensing Presecription Medications

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Northern District of Illinois

CHICAGO — A LaSalle County physician was taken into federal custody this morning after being indicted on federal charges alleging that he illegally dispensed prescription narcotics to three patients in 2012 and 2013. The defendant, Dr. CONSTANTINO PERALES, was charged with 17 counts of illegally dispensing Oxycodone and/or Alprazolam in an indictment returned by a federal grand jury on Wednesday and made public today.

Perales, 62, of Peru, Ill., was expected to appear at 2 p.m. today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Sidney I. Schenkier in Federal Court in Chicago. Perales has been in state custody on related charges, which were dismissed today by LaSalle County prosecutors. Perales’ Illinois medical license was suspended, and he surrendered his DEA registration, after federal and local authorities executed a search warrant at his office and he was arrested on state charges in August.

According to the indictment, Perales dispensed Oxycodone and/or Alprazolam outside the scope of professional practice and without a legitimate medical purpose to three different patients on 17 occasions between May 2012 and August 2013.

Each count carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine. If convicted, the Court must impose a reasonable sentence under federal statutes and the advisory United States Sentencing Guidelines.

The arrest and charge were announced by Zachary T. Fardon, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; Robert J. Shields, Jr., Acting Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Jack Riley, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration; Lamont Pugh, III, Special Agent-in-Charge of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General in Chicago; and the Peru Police Department.

The government is being represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Lela Johnson.

An indictment contains merely charges and is not evidence of guilt. The defendant is presumed innocent and is entitled to a fair trial at which the government has the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

Indictment

Updated July 27, 2015