A physician who gives motivational speeches on healthy living and a Houston police officer were among 13 doctors, pharmacy operators, foreign medical graduates and clinic owners charged with felonies Thursday in a sting that pursued a group of alleged pill mills and pharmacies accused of illegally distributing drugs here.

The group was targeted by a newly formed partnership among the DEA, state regulators and the Harris County District Attorney's office that aims to shut down a prolific pill mill pipeline that flows through the Houston area and has contributed to an unprecedented increase in overdose deaths.

The charges allege Dr. Akili H. Graham, 34, a licensed physician, acted as a front man for others to illegally operate four pain clinics that unlawfully dispensed prescriptions for controlled substances in the Houston area. Prescriptions from those clinics were filled almost exclusively at two area pharmacies and those operators were also charged, according to Ryan Patrick, an assistant district attorney who worked on the case.

Motivational speaker

For the last five years, Graham has offered a series of "How To" motivational speeches on topics like "How to Eat to Live," "How to Shop to Live," "How to Cook to Live," "How to deal with Stress" and "How to be a Teen," according to his own professional website. The website says Graham, a California native who received his medical training in Texas, was "traditionally trained in allopathic western medicine" but has concluded that "a medical society with the most doctors, most medications, best technologies and most medical facilities is not producing adequate results. Studying wholistic (sic) and alternative therapies has led his desire to offer his patients more options."

True owners not docs

Graham was arrested on four charges at a new apartment complex in the Shadow Creek Ranch area at 5 p.m. Thursday by a group of DEA and Harris County Sheriff's officials. He made no immediate comment at the time of his arrest.

Patrick said Graham served as designated medical director for four pain clinics here, but that allegedly unlicensed foreign medical graduates illegally dispensed prescriptions for pain pills and other drugs at all of the sites.

He said non-physicians were the true pain clinic owners. He identified HPD Officer Daniel Muhammad as one of the owners charged as part of Thursday's sting.

Muhammad, who has served with HPD for more than 10 years, was previously temporarily relieved of duty with pay pending an internal investigation of the allegations that he owned two alleged pill mills, according to a department spokesman and media reports.

Permits suspended

Muhammad allegedly owned pain clinics called Imed and The Oaks, according to Patrick. Owners of two others clinics, Preferred and Umat, were identified as Durce Muhammad and Tamu Muhammad. They are not related to the HPD officer, Patrick said.

Graham's permits to operate pain clinics were suspended earlier this year by the Texas Medical Board, records show. Graham has faced no disciplinary action as a licensed physician.

At least one other physician, Dr. Jacqueline Weil, a board-certified family practice physician, was also charged Thursday. So were two others, Kenneth Hopkins and Isaiah Muhammad, who operated pharmacies that filled prescriptions exclusively for the four clinics, Patrick said. Weil allegedly worked with one or more of the clinics prior to Graham. Weil also has faced no disciplinary action by the medical board.

Patrick said the DA's office is using a combination of Texas' new pain clinic registration law and little-used old regulatory statutes to find the "most effective ways to shut these (pill mills) down because they pose a great risk to the public and to consumers."

Leigh Hopper, a spokeswoman for the Texas Medical Board said, "This sounds like the kind of operation that the Medical Board along with other agencies have been targeting. And the hope is with each crackdown and particularly each time a doctor is arrested, we're slowly going to starve off the supply line of these drugs that are responsible for killing so many people."

lise.olsen@chron.com