Texas doctor sentenced for operating Logan pill mill

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A Texas doctor charged with operating a pill mill in Logan is heading to prison.

United States District Judge John Copenhaver, Jr. sentenced Dr. Fernando Gonzales-Ramos, 47, Tuesday in Charleston to five years and eleven months in prison.

“Dr. Gonzales-Ramos wasn’t operating a doctors office, he was running a drug den,” said United States Attorney Booth Goodwin. “His so-called office had no exam table, no running water and not even so much as a stethoscope.”

Gonzales-Ramos previously pleaded guilty in May to conspiracy to distribute controlled substances without a legitimate medical purpose.

Gonzales-Ramos practiced medicine in Logan before moving to Texas in July 2011. After the move, he began making trips from Texas to West Virginia almost every three months to operate a cash-only business in Logan.

“For thousands of dollars in cash he was pumping out prescriptions for thousands of units of powerful narcotics,” said Goodwin.

For about a year and a half, from September 2011 through March 3, 2013, Gonzales-Ramos would take patients at his phony Logan County office and hand out prescriptions for cash.

The weekend pill mill operation was disrupted during a March 2 raid by police and Gonzales-Ramos was arrested.