Gulfport, Miss. — Marcus Deshawn Price, 28, is headed to federal prison for 74 months after admitting his role in a sprawling prescription drug ring that stretched from Hattiesburg to the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Price, a resident of Gulfport, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Sul Ozerden, Jr. on one count of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances. He will serve three years of supervised release upon completion of his sentence and has been ordered to pay a $3,000 fine.
The scheme, which ran from 2014 through August 2017, relied on stolen prescription pads from Gulf Oaks Clinic, where insiders — including employees with access — forged prescriptions for powerful narcotics like oxycodone, hydrocodone, and amphetamine. These prescriptions were written for individuals who were never patients and signed by people who had no legal authority to prescribe medication. The operation turned a medical facility into a pipeline for black-market drugs.
Price wasn’t just a buyer — he was a key distributor. He personally picked up multiple fraudulent prescriptions using his own Mississippi driver’s license and signed pharmacy logs, leaving a paper trail that federal agents would later use to dismantle the network. But he also used aliases and the personal information of others to obtain pills, shielding himself — or so he thought — from detection.
Investigators say Price coordinated with accomplices to have others collect prescriptions on his behalf, then divided the pills among his crew. The drugs, once in circulation, fed addiction, crime, and overdose risks across South Mississippi. This wasn’t street-corner dealing — it was a calculated exploitation of the healthcare system for profit and distribution.
The DEA’s Diversion Group, which specializes in tracking pharmaceutical crimes involving licensed professionals and stolen medications, led the investigation. Their work exposed how clinic staff breached public trust, turning prescription pads into weapons. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathlyn R. Van Buskirk, who emphasized the danger posed by medically unqualified individuals flooding communities with opioids.
U.S. Attorney Mike Hurst and DEA Special Agent in Charge Stephen G. Azzam jointly announced the sentencing, calling it a critical blow to prescription drug trafficking in the region. ‘This wasn’t victimless crime,’ Hurst said. ‘Every forged script endangered lives.’ Price’s conviction underscores the federal crackdown on organized pill mills and insider abuse in the medical field.
Related Federal Cases
- Jackson Man Gets 10 Years in Cocaine Conspiracy · Mississippi
- Travis Lee Fulgham Gets 87 Months for Oxycodone Scheme · Mississippi
- Alicia Bucy, Peaches Herrick Sentenced in Meth Conspiracy · Mississippi
- Snead Gets 7 Years for Heroin Pipeline · Mississippi
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Key Facts
- State: Mississippi
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: Drug Trafficking
- Source: Official Source ↗
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