A Long Beach physician assistant allegedly linked to a deadly overdose is expected to plead not guilty Thursday to a federal charge of diverting dangerous narcotics to the black market.
Gabriel Hernandez, 58, who works at a Long Beach pain management clinic known as Vortex Wellness & Aesthetics, faces a charge of distributing oxycodone without a legitimate medical purpose.
The Anaheim man was arrested in February as part of Operation Hypocritical Oath, a yearlong U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration-led probe targeting doctors, physician assistants, nurse practitioners and clinic operators suspected of illegally providing controlled substances to so-called patients and black market customers in violation of their oaths to do no harm.
Prosecutors allege that over a two-year period that ended in November, Hernandez prescribed nearly 6,000 controlled substances — more than half of which were for maximum-strength oxycodone, which means he was responsible for 446,000 oxycodone pills being dispensed.
Hernandez allegedly often wrote prescriptions for drug cocktails known as the holy trinity — a narcotic, a tranquilizer and/or a muscle relaxant — which are sought out by drug addicts and are particularly dangerous because of the threat of fatal overdose, according to court documents.
In 2017, according to records maintained by the state of California, Hernandez wrote a prescription for the three drugs to a 41-year-old man who died a week later from the combined effects of alcohol and two of the prescribed drugs, according to the criminal complaint. A San Diego pharmacist contacted investigators late last year about suspicious and identical prescriptions Hernandez wrote to three people who appeared to be living in the same house over a hundred miles away from the Vortex clinic.
A medical expert who reviewed data on Hernandez’s prescription history and tapes of two office visits by a law enforcement source concluded that Hernandez’s “actions are much closer to that of an illegal drug dealer than that of a physician, and the patient visits are a sham,” court papers show.
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