Federal prosecutors say a supplier of a suspected drug dealer in Ohio is a metro Phoenix doctor whose prescription authority was used to distribute hundreds of thousands of opioid pills.
A lawyer for the doctor recently told a judge that he was overly trusting of his business manager, whom the feds have identified as leader of the trafficking ring.
Dr. George Martinez-Aviles has pleaded not guilty to money laundering and being part of a drug-distribution conspiracy.
Court records say his prescription authority unlocked roughly 234,000 oxycodone pills and 23 gallons of cough syrup with codeine.
Key to the case will be what happened last year after federal agents interviewed Aviles.
The defense said at a recent hearing that Aviles told his local business manager to stop using his authority to fill bogus prescriptions.
Prosecutors wrote that Aviles broke a promise to take back a registration token needed to prescribe controlled substances.
