Federal court bans Pasco County pharmacist from filling opioid prescriptions

A federal court has dissolved a Pasco County pharmacy and permanently banned its pharmacist from filling prescriptions for opioids, U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Florida Gregory W. Kehoe says in a release. 

According to a civll court complaint filed in August 2022, federal investigators say Nathaniel Esalomi, 57, illegally filled opioid prescriptions he knew were not valid at Apexx Pharmacy in Hudson, where he was the owner and sole pharmacist. Some of the filled prescriptions for controlled substances were for people who had died, the complaint alleges. 

The complaint also says Esalomi charged “dramatically inflated prices to fill opioid prescriptions and accepted thousands of dollars in cash for the drugs.” Investigators also allege Esalomi instructed individuals to forge signatures on certain forms and falsify addresses, the complaint states. 

“The opioid epidemic has devastated not only our communities here in Florida but the entire nation,” Kehoe says in the release. “Our office will continue to investigate and hold accountable those who contributed to this crisis.” 

Esalomi has agreed to a consent judgement to settle the multiple allegations of the Controlled Substances Act listed in the federal complaint. An order from the court, announced Wednesday by the DoJ, permanently prohibits Esalomi from distributing opioids or any other controlled substances, and also permanently prohibits him from managing, owning or controlling any entity that dispenses controlled substances, which include opioids. 

Esalomi also has to pay at least $10,000 of a $500,000 suspended civil penalty, according to the consent judgement. 

Apexx Pharmacy, at 10343 State Road 52 in Hudson, was permanently dissolved following the initial complaint and a temporary restraining order from the federal court. It will remain dissolved under the terms of the consent order, the release says. Esalomi also pleaded “no contest” to other charges not detailed in the release that were brought by the State of Florida for a related criminal case. 

“Medical professionals who knowingly facilitate the abuse of opioids violate their legal obligations,” Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate of the Justice Department’s Civil Division says in the release. “The Department will pursue justice against anyone who seeks to profit from unlawfully distributing opioids.”

U.S. District Judge Thomas Barber entered the judgment and permanent injunction in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida.