News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Tues. May 16, 2017: A former minister of government of the South American nation of Guyana is now inmate 89102-053 at the Metropolitan Detention Center of Brooklyn, NY.
Noel Blackman, 69, who practiced as a medical doctor and was the former Health Minister of Guyana and Executive Member of the World Health Organization, is serving 50 in jail for illegally distributing oxycodone, a highly addictive prescription painkiller.
Additionally, United States District Judge Joanna Seybert ordered Blackman of Valley Stream, NY, to forfeit $536,200 in illegal proceeds following his guilty plea on August 24, 2016.
Blackman admitted that between 2015-2016,he prescribed more than 365,000 30-milligram oxycodone pills from “pain management” clinics that he worked out of in Elmhurst, Queens, Franklin Square, Long Island and Cypress Hills, Brooklyn.
During his guilty plea remarks before Judge Seybert last August, Blackman admitted that, in exchange for $300 cash payments, he wrote oxycodone prescriptions for 1,920 pills of 30 milligram oxycodone dosages to persons whom he knew had no legitimate medical need for that highly-addictive drug. As described in court papers, that amount of oxycodone was worth up to $57,600 on the street.
According to court filings, on February 7, 2016, HSI agents removed Blackman from a plane at John F. Kennedy International Airport en route to Guyana and arrested him in connection with the illegal distribution of oxycodone.
At the time of his arrest, more than $30,000 was found concealed in Blackman’s luggage. Following his arrest, Blackman admitted that he believed that some of his patients were addicted to oxycodone.
Blackman has forfeited his medical license and will no longer be allowed to practice medicine in the United States.
“Prescribing ‘oxys’ in exchange for cash is no different than a street dealer’s hand to hand drug transaction; both are illegal and fuel drug misuse in our communities,” stated DEA Special Agent-in-Charge Hunt.
Blackman will also have to serve three years of supervised release after his jail term.
