MINNEAPOLIS — Three Minnesota men are facing federal charges for allegedly hacking the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) practitioners and physicians' system, known as RICS, and ordering at least 300 pints of promethazine with codeine.
The federal indictment charges Oscar Becerra-Ruiz, Jasper William Johnson, and Raujaun Keon Varner, all ages 19 to 23, with conspiracy to acquire and obtain controlled substances by fraud, 11 counts of wire fraud and four counts of aggravated identity theft.
According to the indictment, from December 2022 to August 2023, the three men stole physicians' information to set up customer accounts in the physicians' names with several online pharmaceutical wholesalers. Then, prosecutors say, they placed dozens of orders of promethazine with codeine, had them shipped to fake physicians' offices across Minnesota and Wisconsin, and sold them here and across the U.S.
According to the indictment, the 300 pints have an approximate street value of $750,000.
A spokesperson for the DEA confirmed that no patient information was compromised in the security breach.
According to court records, all three men were previously convicted of various misdemeanors. KARE 11 reached out to the lead defense attorney on the case who declined to comment at this time.