Seal Beach : Physician Is Arrested on Narcotics Charges
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A physician was arrested at his home Tuesday and charged with illegally selling prescriptions for a synthetic form of heroin, officials said.
James Richard Luchs, 50, who practices in Compton, was being held Wednesday night in Los Angeles County Jail in lieu of $50,000 bail, the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office said. Luchs’ arrest climaxed a 4-month investigation by the state Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement and the federal Drug Enforcement Administration.
Luchs is scheduled to be arraigned today on nine felony charges, including selling a controlled substance, illegally issuing prescriptions for controlled substances and prescribing medicine without medical cause.
Investigators searched Luchs’ home and office and found records of illegal drug sales going back to 1982, prosecutors said.
On four occasions between Oct. 7 and Nov. 17, undercover agents bought four prescriptions for Dilaudid, a synthetic form of heroin, by calling Luchs at his office and then going to the office to pick them up, investigators said.
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