a friend of mine used to fill his oxycontin and roxicodone at this pharm, guess he won't be anymore! Jefferson pharmacist pleads guilty
Collins sold prescription drugs to undercover agent

By RANDY KENNER,
March 28, 2003

A Jefferson County pharmacist pleaded guilty Thursday to selling thousands of dollars worth of prescription drugs to an undercover agent and to possessing more than 3,000 additional pills he intended to sell.

Billy Ray Collins, the part owner of a Jefferson City drug store, entered guilty pleas to several federal drug offenses during a hearing before U.S. District Judge James H. Jarvis.

Under the terms of his plea agreement the 48-year-old father of three faces a sentence of about nine years in prison.

Collins' pleas stemmed from a pair of undercover buys an operative made from him in the summer of 2002 that included hundreds of OxyContin and Hydrocodone pills, bottles containing morphine, and narcotics patches.

"It is a very good result for a very difficult case," said prosecutor Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer E. Bolen. "And we hope this sends a message to the community that drug diversion will not be tolerated."

Collins also pleaded guilty to misleading investigators about the existence of 236 prescriptions for narcotics that he filled for Seymour physician Dr. Christopher Castle. He is facing more than 500 counts of illegal distribution of prescription narcotics.

Bolen and Collins' attorneys, James A.H. Bell, Richard L. Gaines and Joan Stallard, worked out the plea agreement.

Collins, who lives in Morristown, pleaded guilty to illegal distribution of controlled substances; using a communication facility, in this case a telephone, to further a drug trafficking offense; illegal possession of controlled substances with intent to distribute them and obstruction of a criminal health care fraud investigation.

Jarvis set a June 24 sentencing for Collins.

The exact sentence still has to be determined under federal guidelines.

Bell told Jarvis that preliminary calculations show Collins' sentence would be around nine years.

"Could be a little lower, doubt it could be much higher," Bell told Jarvis. "That's on the high end (of the proposed sentencing range)"

According to court documents, Collins was under investigation by the spring of 2002.

On June 19, 2002, Collins provided 530 OxyContin pills to an undercover operative in Morristown in return for the promise of a $12,040 payment later.

About a month later Collins provided the agent with four bottles of a liquid mixture containing morphine, 45 narcotics patches and 1,300 narcotics patches.

Collins expected $9,000 to $10,000 for the drugs.

On Aug. 20, 2002, Collins was caught with nearly 3,500 narcotics pills, including hundreds containing morphine, which he intended to distribute illegally.

Collins also agreed to forfeit $280,095 in cash agents found in his residence

Agents from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration worked the case.