Nigerian Doctor Ndubuisi Okafor Convicted in U.S. for Illegal Distribution of Prescription Narcotics

A U.S. federal jury has convicted 65-year-old Nigerian doctor, Ndubuisi Joseph Okafor, for illegally distributing prescription narcotics in exchange for cash from his medical clinic in Northwest Washington, D.C.

Okafor, a resident of Upper Marlboro, Maryland, was found guilty on Friday, March 21, 2025, as announced by the U.S. Department of Justice. The verdict was delivered by U.S. Attorney Edward R. Martin Jr., alongside officials from the FBI, the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG), the District of Columbia Office of Inspector General, and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

The jury found Okafor guilty of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances outside the practice of medicine, maintaining a drug-involved premises, and 22 counts of unlawful distribution of controlled substances, including oxycodone and promethazine with codeine. U.S. District Judge John D. Bates has scheduled his sentencing for June 20, 2025.

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Okafor operated Okafor Medical Associates, an internal medicine clinic in Washington, D.C., between May 2021 and April 2023. Law enforcement agencies across the U.S. flagged his prescriptions as being linked to drug trafficking networks, prompting an investigation by the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Between February and November 2022, undercover FBI agents and confidential sources visited Okafor’s clinic as walk-in patients. Despite minimal examinations, Okafor prescribed them opioids. Further investigations revealed that he ran a nationwide drug distribution scheme, prescribing opioids to individuals using false identities, fully aware that the drugs were being diverted to illicit markets. His operation spanned at least 45 states, leading to the prescription of hundreds of thousands of units of oxycodone and promethazine with codeine.

Okafor was also convicted for illegally distributing opioids to undercover sources, uncharged co-conspirators, and a civilian patient identified as J.V. When J.V.’s family filed a complaint with the D.C. Board of Health, Okafor fabricated backdated medical records to justify his prescriptions. In September 2023, authorities immediately suspended Okafor’s DEA registration number, citing him as a threat to public health and safety.

The case was investigated by the FBI’s Washington Field Office, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, the D.C. Office of Inspector General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Authorities in North Carolina, New York, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and other states also provided key assistance during the investigation and trial.

The prosecution was handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Meredith Mayer-Dempsey, Trial Attorney Kathryn Furtado, and paralegals from the Justice Department’s Fraud Section.