Authorities raided the office of a Honolulu dentist and arrested him. Narcotics investigators said the doctor's patients were at risk from his illicit drug habit.
A four-month investigation led up to Tuesday's arrest of Dr. Declan Devereux, 42, inside his Kapiolani Boulevard office.
Undercover officers with the Department of Public Safety's Narcotics Enforcement Division raided the office armed with a search warrant.
The dentist would write fake prescriptions for painkillers, which he would pick up then bill his patients for, investigators said.
A patient who complained about his billing sparked the investigation, officials said.
"Through that complaint we did some investigative work. We talked to some of the pharmacists; we used our electronic prescription monitoring program and tracked Dr. Devereux," state Department of Public Safety's Narcotics Chief Keith Kamita said.
What was unusual about the prescriptions was that it was not unusual, officials said. The prescriptions stayed just under the radar with small amounts of hydrocordone, or Vicodin.
Devereux is not an isolated case. The Narcotics Enforcement Division last year investigated 76 forged controlled substance prescription cases, which included 12 doctors.
"It's such a big problem because a lot of people don't think of pharmaceutical drugs as regular drugs like illicit drugs. If you think about these drugs, some of them are more powerful than elicit drugs like heroin or cocaine," Kamita said.
Authorities arrested Devereux on eight counts of fraud, which is a class "C" felony that is punishable by up to five years in jail and $5,000 in fines for each count.
"I think it's all a misunderstanding, but we'll see," Devereux said as authorities led him away in handcuffs.
Investigators are looking into certain patient records. They said more arrests could be made.
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