A medical doctor was arrested on federal charges of illegally selling prescriptions without a legitimate medical purpose to undercover operatives who visited the physician’s Victorville medical office.
Wendell Mark Street, 66, of Las Vegas, was arrested without incident at his residence by special agents with the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Street is a 1981 graduate of the Medical College of Wisconsin. He practiced at 14075 Hesperia Road in Victorville, Street surrendered his California medical license in 2016.
The 44 page Accusation filed by the California Medical Board in December 2014 essentially details prescriptions written to a number of patients who are identified only by their first and last name initials. Details are provided on how each of them was prescribed controlled substances in violation of law or professional standards. By February 23, 2016, Street and his attorney, Thomas Chapin Esq., signed a Stipulated Surrender of License.
The arrest is the result of a 10-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury on February 9. The indictment charges Street with five counts of illegally distributing the painkiller oxycodone and five counts of illegally distributing the tranquilizer alprazolam (often sold under the brand name Xanax). Street allegedly issued the prescriptions in 2013 in exchange for cash “while acting and intending to act outside the usual course of professional practice and without a legitimate medical purpose.”
Street allegedly wrote prescriptions without performing any physical examinations in exchange for $200 to $300 in cash from each of two undercover investigators with the California Medical Board and an informant. During the investigation into Street, investigators executed a search warrant at his Victorville office in 2014.
Street is expected to make his initial appearance in the United States District Court in Las Vegas. The five counts related to illegal distribution of oxycodone each carry a statutory maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison. The five counts related to alprazolam each carry a sentence of up to five years in prison.
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Victoria A. Degtyareva of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force.