Adrian Dexter Talbot, Opioid Trafficking, Louisiana 2023

A Louisiana doctor has been indicted for his role in distributing over 1,200,000 doses of Schedule II controlled substances, including oxycodone and morphine, outside the scope of professional practice and not for a legitimate medical purpose. Adrian Dexter Talbot, 55, of Slidell, is charged with conspiracy to unlawfully distribute and dispense controlled substances, maintaining a drug-involved premises, conspiracy to commit health care fraud, and four counts of unlawfully distributing and dispensing controlled substances.

According to court documents, Talbot owned and operated a medical clinic in Slidell that accepted cash payments from individuals seeking prescriptions for Schedule II controlled substances. In 2015, Talbot took a full-time job in Pineville, Louisiana, but continued to pre-sign prescriptions to be distributed at the Slidell clinic without seeing or examining those individuals. In 2016, Talbot hired another practitioner who also pre-signed prescriptions to be distributed in the same manner.

Talbot’s actions resulted in health care benefit programs, including Medicare, Medicaid, and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana, being fraudulently billed for filling prescriptions that were written without an appropriate patient examination or determination of medical necessity. The indictment alleges that Talbot defrauded health care benefit programs of more than $5,100,000.

The FBI, HHS-OIG, VA-OIG, and the Louisiana Office of the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit are investigating the case. Trial Attorney Sara E. Porter of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney David Howard Sinkman of the Eastern District of Louisiana are prosecuting the case.

Talbot is scheduled to appear in court on September 10 before U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael B. North. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 10 years for conspiracy to commit health care fraud and 20 years each for the other counts.

An indictment is merely an allegation, and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

Related Federal Cases