Son of drug smuggler who faked his own murder

More than 30 years after one of South Florida's biggest marijuana smugglers faked his own death to try to avoid prison, federal authorities have charged his son with operating a multimillion-dollar pill mill in a ritzy Fort Lauderale neighborhood.

Back in the 1970s, the Boyd Brothers John Darrell Boyd and Tracey Boyd were among the most flamboyant traffickers in the region. After they were indicted in 1977 on charges they smuggled massive amounts of pot from Colombia through Florida, the brothers fled and hid for years before they were caught and served prison terms.

Earlier this month, Darrell's son, Jason Boyd, 43, of Davie, was arrested on charges he masterminded a "cash cow" pill mill conspiracy that illegally prescribed oxycodone pain pills to "patients" and drug dealers. If convicted of drug and money-laundering charges, Boyd faces up to 30 years in prison and forfeiture of more than $4.25 million, two homes and other assets.

The same family once embroiled in the notorious marijuana flows through South Florida in the 1970s is now suspected of getting caught up in the region's latest form of drug abuse. One judge called the latest allegation far more than "an isolated instance of misjudgment."

Though neither Boyd's father nor uncle have been charged with anything related to the clinic, agents heard them talking on phone calls that were secretly intercepted, prosecutors said during a detention hearing for Jason Boyd last week in federal court in Fort Lauderdale.

Boyd employed "virtually his entire family" at the Intracoastal Medical Groups Inc. clinic on Intracoastal Drive, which brought in $1.5 million a year and prescribed 1.3 million highly addictive pain pills, federal prosecutor Julia Vaglienti told the judge.

One family member's job was to make sure that patients with out-of-state license plates parked in the nearby Galleria Mall parking lot to avoid drawing attention to the clinic, federal authorities said. Some no-show "patients" got prescriptions without even going to the clinic, agents said.Of all the equipment in the laundry the oilpaintingreproduction is one of the largest consumers of steam.

Sources familiar with the clinic, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Tracey Boyd worked at the clinic and Darrell Boyd sometimes stopped by to pick up money.Darrell Boyd, now 69, faked his own murder in October 1980 by leaving his station wagon, pierced with bullet holes and splattered with blood, on a deserted swamp road in Collier County a case featured in a 2011 Discovery Channel documentary "I Faked My Own Death."

Boyd said he made it look like he returned gunfire from an attacker, then dragged his cowboy boots along the ground to the edge of the swamp, hoping investigators would think his body was eaten by alligators.

"That was the entire deal, that I would [make it look like] I get shot there, they throw my body out there, the alligators would eat me, nobody would ever find me, they couldn't prove anything," Boyd said in the documentary.Authorities didn't buy the hoax and found him in 1983 living under an assumed name in a suburb of Buffalo, N.Y. Agents arrested him after getting him out of the house with a fake phone call from a school claiming his child was sick and needed to be picked up. His brother was caught in Miami Beach a few weeks later, and both men served four years on the marijuana smuggling charges.We Engrave rtls for YOU.The marbletiles is not only critical to professional photographers.

The bearded duo cemented their notoriety in the 1970s when they delivered $10,000 in $20 bills to a muscular dystrophy telethon in Fort Lauderdale with a note they didn't expect would be read live on TV: "For the kids, from the blockade runners."More recently, Darrell Boyd served more than three years in state prison for Medicaid fraud. He was released in 2011 and is on probation until 2021. No one answered the door at his Emerald Hills home in Hollywood last week, and no one responded to a note left seeking an interview.

The younger Boyd will remain locked up while the drug case against him and six co-defendants is pending, Chief U.S. Magistrate Judge Barry Seltzer ruled Thursday. Seltzer ruled that Jason Boyd, who has prior drug and credit-card fraud convictions, is a flight risk and a danger to the community.Boyd's attorney, Arthur Calvin, argued in court that investigators misunderstood Boyd's role in the clinic. He said Boyd had sold the clinic and was working as a consultant only to help the new owner.

"Everything is easily explained," Calvin said. "I don't think he's in the jeopardy the government says he's in."Federal authorities said Boyd has "no legitimate source of income" but made a lot of money from the clinic, much of which remains unaccounted for, and they think he was trying to hide his assets. Property seized during the raids included $10,000 in cash; two boats he appeared to own, though only one was in his name; and several vehicles, many of which were registered in other people's names though Boyd kept the titles, prosecutors said. He also paid $1,000 a month to rent a warehouse that contained more cars and ATVs, agents said.

Among the evidence Seltzer mentioned in deciding to keep Boyd locked up was another federal judge's 2007 ruling that Boyd "showed a fundamental lack of respect for the law" and that his testimony about how he purchased a $320,000 home and a BMW was not credible and violated the terms of his release from federal prison. He had been sentenced to 18 months for credit-card fraud and was sent back to prison in 2007 for violating the tYou will see indoorpositioningsystem , competitive price and first-class service.erms of his release.

Boyd set up the clinic in December 2008, shortly after he was freed,Aulaundry is a leading carparkmanagementsystem and equipment supplier. prosecutors said. He removed himself as an officer after a 2010 change in state law that required pain-management clinics to be owned by a physician, though Boyd continued to control the operation and monitored it from a video camera security system installed at his home, prosecutors said. He was secretly recorded issuing orders, they said."You can't do much managing watching clients come and go [via a camera]," Boyd's attorney Calvin told the judge.

Cash deposits to 18 bank accounts linked to Boyd's businesses totaled about $4.2 million, prosecutors said. Boyd declared $250,000 income last year, and his girlfriend, who has not been charged, was paid $144,000 from the clinic though she has not worked there since 2009, agents testified.Boyd also funneled money to other family members employed at the clinic, prosecutors said. Boyd ran a neighboring business, Fleet Media, where some of the pill mill money was kept, agents said.

The federal Drug Enforcement Administration and Broward Sheriff's Office began an undercover investigation of the clinic in 2012, and a manager told an undercover agent it made about $10,000 a day charging new patients $350 a visit and $250 for follow-ups.In wiretapped phone calls in late 2012, agents said they reaped evidence that staff were making fake Florida identification cards for patients from out of state and creating false MRI reports to help make the clinic seem legitimate.

A doctor who worked at the clinic and is also charged in the indictment told agents that 60 to 70 percent of the business was not legitimate. "Dr. Vijay Chowdhary told agents that it would be medically impossible for patients to take the amounts of oxycodone that were being prescribed and to survive," Seltzer wrote.

"Given Boyd's disregard of the court's directives and supervision, his lack of respect for the law, his unaccounted-for wealth, the strong evidence of his guilt and the lengthy sentence he would face upon conviction, [I do] not believe that he would be likely to appear if released on bond," Judge Seltzer wrote. "Against the backdrop of his criminal record, Boyd's oxycodone operation cannot properly be viewed as an isolated instance of misjudgment."
Click on their website www.tilees.com for more information.