TALLAHASSEE, FL - Attorney General Bill McCollum today announced a Miami-Dade County man was sentenced to 20 years in prison after he was convicted for his role in a prescription drug diversion scam. Joel De la Osa was indicted by a Statewide Grand Jury in July of 2003 for participating in a scheme that diverted $9 million worth of pharmaceuticals used to treat AIDS, cancer and other critical conditions from Medicaid recipients. The drugs were then resold with altered labels for profit.

Because the pharmaceuticals’ paperwork, known as pedigree papers, were phony, law enforcement couldn’t be sure of the condition or authenticity of any of the drugs sold. De la Osa, 39, pleaded guilty to one charge of organized scheme to defraud, a first-degree felony, earlier this month. He was prosecuted by the Attorney General’s Office of Statewide Prosecution.

The investigation was conducted by the Stone Cold Task Force, consisting of the Office of Statewide Prosecution, the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Miami-Dade Police Department. Today’s sentence was handed down by Broward County Circuit Court Judge Stanton Kaplan. Of the 18 individuals originally indicted by the Statewide Grand Jury, five defendants are still awaiting trial, scheduled for later this summer.