Pagans Biker ‘Redneck’ Treacy Gets 20 Years for Pill Mill

A Pennsylvania biker and member of the violent Pagans Outlaw Motorcycle Club has been slammed with a 20-year federal prison sentence for his central role in a sprawling prescription pill mill operation that flooded the streets with hundreds of thousands of oxycodone pills. Patrick Treacy, a/k/a “Redneck,” was sentenced today in Philadelphia by U.S. District Judge Nitza I. Quiñones Alejandro after pleading guilty to charges of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances.

In addition to the 20-year term, Treacy was handed a concurrent 10-year sentence for illegally possessing a firearm, bringing his total prison exposure to two decades. Upon release, he will face three years of supervised probation and must pay a $200 special assessment. A judgment of forfeiture has also been entered against him, seizing assets tied to the criminal enterprise.

The scheme, which ran from March 2012 to January 2015, involved former osteopathic doctor William O’Brien, who operated a medical office as a front for writing fraudulent prescriptions. O’Brien charged $250 for initial visits and $200 for follow-ups, doling out oxycodone (30 mg) and other Schedule II drugs to hundreds of so-called pseudo-patients recruited by Treacy and other Pagans associates. Each pill sold for $25 to $30 on the street, fueling addiction and overdose across the region.

Investigators uncovered that more than 700,000 controlled substance pills were distributed through the conspiracy, with Treacy acting as a key link between the outlaw bikers and the corrupt medical operation. The Pagans, known for violence and drug trafficking, used their network to steer patients to O’Brien’s office, then resold the pills for massive profit. The operation reeked of greed and disregard for human life, feeding the opioid crisis in Pennsylvania and beyond.

O’Brien was convicted by jury in summer 2016 and sentenced on October 5, 2016, to 30 years in federal prison. Another Pagans member, Joseph Mitchell, was sentenced on October 16, 2016, to nine years. Several other codefendants remain awaiting sentencing as the DOJ dismantles the network. The case was investigated by the FBI, FDA Office of Criminal Investigations, and HHS Office of Inspector General.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Mary Beth Leahy and David E. Troyer led the prosecution, calling it a textbook example of how organized crime exploits the medical system for drug trafficking. ‘This wasn’t healthcare,’ said one law enforcement source. ‘It was a criminal assembly line for addiction.’ With Treacy now locked up for two decades, federal authorities say a major artery of the opioid pipeline has been severed — but the scars remain deep in the communities it poisoned.