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Press Release

Princeton man pleads guilty to obtaining a controlled substance by fraud

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of West Virginia

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – A Princeton man pleaded guilty today to a federal drug crime, announced United States Attorney Carol Casto. Frederick Torrefiel de Mesa, 38, entered his guilty plea to obtaining a controlled substance by misrepresentation, fraud, forgery, deception and subterfuge.

As part of his plea agreement, de Mesa admitted that on February 22, 2016, in Princeton, he presented a forged prescription for zolpidem, a controlled substance more commonly known as Ambien, to a pharmacist at Hickman Rx Druggist. The prescription was filled the same day, and de Mesa admitted that he wrote the prescription himself without the consent of a doctor.

When de Mesa is sentenced on September 26, 2017, he faces up to four years in federal prison.

The Drug Enforcement Administration conducted the investigation. Senior United States District Judge David A. Faber is presiding over the case.

This case was brought as part of an ongoing effort led by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of West Virginia to combat the illicit sale and misuse of prescription drugs and heroin. The U.S. Attorney’s Office, joined by federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, is committed to aggressively pursuing and shutting down illegal pill trafficking, eliminating open air drug markets, and curtailing the spread of opiate painkillers and heroin in communities across the Southern District.

Updated June 20, 2017

Topic
Prescription Drugs