Former Pain Management Clinic Owner Sentenced to Over 16 Years for Unlawful Opioid Distribution

Miami, Florida - A Florida man was sentenced today in the Southern District of Florida to 200 months in prison for illegally distributing opioids at his pain management clinic in Miami.

Habib Geagea Palacios, 40, of Miami, owned General Care Center Inc., a cash-only pain management clinic. At General Care, Palacios paid doctors to prescribe opioids to nearly all patients who visited the clinic, resulting in the illegal distribution of more than three million oxycodone pills and generating $9 million in cash. Seven doctors who worked at General Care have been charged in connection with their unlawful prescribing practices at the clinic, and six have pleaded guilty to date.    

Palacios pleaded guilty on Nov. 9, 2021, to one count of conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance and one count of distributing a controlled substance. In addition to the term of imprisonment, Palacios was sentenced to serve three years of supervised release. 

U.S. Attorney Juan Antonio Gonzalez of the Southern District of Florida; Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; Special Agent in Charge Omar Pérez Aybar of the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Inspector General (HHS-OIG), Miami Regional Office; Assistant Director Luis Quesada of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division; Special Agent in Charge George L. Piro of the FBI’s Miami Field Office; Special Agent in Charge Deanne L. Reuter of the DEA’s Miami Field Office; and Special Agent in Charge Brian Swain of the U.S. Secret Service (USSS), Miami Field Office, made the announcement.

HHS-OIG, FBI, DEA, and USSS investigated the case.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin J. Larsen for the Southern District of Florida and Trial Attorney Alexander Thor Pogozelski of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section  prosecuted the case.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicole Grosnoff is handling asset forfeiture.

This prosecution was part of Operation General Care-Less (FC/FLS/2227), which is a result of the ongoing efforts by the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF), a partnership between federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. The principal mission of the OCDETF program is to identify, disrupt, and dismantle the highest-level drug traffickers, money launderers, and other priority transnational criminal organizations that threaten the citizens of the United States using a prosecutor-led, intelligence driven, multi-agency approach to combat transnational organized crime.  The OCDETF program facilitates complex, joint operations by focusing its partner agencies on priority targets, by managing and coordinating multi-agency efforts, and by leveraging intelligence across multiple investigative platforms.

Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.

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