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California Clinic Operator Gets 18 Years in Federal Prison for Illegal Opioid Ring

A San Fernando Valley man who operated corrupt medical clinics was sentenced to 216 months in federal prison for participating in a drug trafficking ring that sold thousands of illegal opioid prescriptions for cash. Justin Douglas Cozart, 48, of Woodland Hills, who operated and supervised the ChiroMed medical clinics, was sentenced by United States District Judge David O. Carter. From 2017 to January 2020, Cozart and others knowingly and intentionally participated in a conspiracy to distribute the opioid painkiller oxycodone outside the usual course of professional practice and without a legitimate medical purpose. Cozart operated several medical clinics in Southern California. Other members of the conspiracy recruited sham patients to go to Cozart’s clinics to obtain oxycodone prescriptions. Cozart employed doctors at the clinic, including John Korzelius, 74, a.k.a. “Dr. K,” of Long Beach, who wrote oxycodone prescriptions for the fake patients. The recruiters then paid Cozart for the fraudulent oxycodone prescriptions.