An Orange County doctor has been arrested on suspicion of illegally selling powerful narcotics to a man who is suspected in a DUI crash that killed a Costa Mesa fire captain, as well as selling drugs to five people who went on to fatally overdose, local officials with the Justice Department announced Tuesday. Dr. Dzung Ahn Pham, 57, faces federal drug trafficking charges and two counts of illegally distributing oxycodone and issuing prescriptions for controlled substances outside the usual course of professional practice and without a legitimate medical purpose.
Pham, of Tustin, would allegedly write prescriptions for so-called patients who were drug addicts and/or were selling the drugs on the black market, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California.