Shriharsh Laxman Pole, Oxycodone Trafficking, Virginia 2013

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Dr. Shriharsh Laxman Pole, 65, of Woodbridge, Virginia, was sentenced to more than seven years in federal prison for running a sprawling pill mill that pumped over 600,000 oxycodone pills into the region’s drug underground. The former physician turned illegal distributor operated under the thin veil of legitimacy at Excel Medical Clinic, where patients walked in with cash and walked out with powerful opioids — no exams, no questions.

Pole, who voluntarily surrendered his medical license twice — in 2009 and again in 2013 — admitted both times to endangering public health through reckless opioid prescribing. Yet within months of his second surrender, he launched Excel Medical Clinic from the same Woodbridge office, using the same staff and patient base. There, he orchestrated a criminal enterprise disguised as pain management, flooding streets with oxycodone, oxymorphone, hydrocodone, and hydromorphone without medical justification.

Working with co-conspirator Janelle Hibson, 63, of Fredericksburg, a nurse-practitioner who pleaded guilty on September 6, Pole used pre-signed prescriptions to bypass legal safeguards. Patients were routinely handed massive quantities of controlled substances without physical exams or diagnostic review. The operation, federal prosecutors say, was a textbook pill mill — a profit-driven pipeline feeding addiction and overdose.

Between 2013 and 2015, Pole caused the illegal distribution of more than 600,000 oxycodone-laced pills. He admitted to the scheme, which exploited loopholes in oversight and the desperation of both addicts and dealers. No legitimate medical purpose backed the prescriptions — only cash and connections.

“Pole’s repeated and callous actions endangered the community,” said G. Zachary Terwilliger, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. “Pole put highly addictive, dangerous drugs into the hands of scores of customers that had no actual need for them. It is exactly the type of irresponsible behavior that continues to fuel the opioid epidemic that is gripping our communities. The Eastern District will remain dogged in its pursuit of heroin traffickers, illicit fentanyl, and dirty practitioners like this as we continue to fight this three-front battle against opioids.”

The sentencing was announced by Terwilliger and Matthew J. DeSarno, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, following the ruling by Senior U.S. District Judge Claude M. Hilton. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Michael P. Ben’Ary and David Peters prosecuted the case. Court records, including Case No. 1:18-cr-303, are available via the U.S. Attorney’s Office and PACER.

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