SAN DIEGO — A 71- year-old doctor who wrote nearly 1 million prescriptions for a popular painkiller last year was part of a ring smuggling prescription drugs to Mexico, according to a federal indictment obtained yesterday.
Hydrocodone tablets flooded Tijuana pharmacies where they were snapped up by American addicts on jaunts across the border.
Authorities figure it was easier for the smugglers to unload large batches of the pills at the loosely regulated Mexican pharmacies than sell them on US streets.
A smuggler who buys a pill for about $2 in San Diego can sell it to a Mexican pharmacy for about $3.50 — and the American addict pays $6 to bring it back home.
The 17-month probe culminated in the arrest of Dr. Tyron Reece, a general practitioner outside LA who wrote 920,000 prescriptions last year for hydrocodone.