A Texas physician was sentenced to 12½ years in federal prison for operating a cash-only medical clinic that illegally issued prescriptions for more than 3 million opioid pills.
Maryam Qayum, 68, of Montgomery County, owned and operated Recare Health Clinic in Kingwood, where she served as the sole prescriber. According to the Justice Department, Qayum sold prescriptions for powerful opioids to street-level drug dealers between 2022 and 2025.
Court documents described Recare as a pill mill where dealers, referred to by clinic staff as “providers,” purchased prescriptions for high-strength oxycodone and hydrocodone. Qayum issued the prescriptions without a legitimate medical purpose and often without interacting with the purported patients.
The clinic charged prices based partly on a drug’s value on the illegal market. Prescriptions for 30-milligram oxycodone reportedly cost as much as $500, while hydrocodone prescriptions frequently cost $300. Staff also accepted tips to expedite patients and prescriptions, prosecutors said.
Law enforcement shut down the clinic in 2025. Investigators executing a search warrant recovered a handwritten note listing the cash prices charged for controlled-substance prescriptions.
Qayum pleaded guilty in March 2026 to conspiracy to unlawfully distribute controlled substances.
Four other defendants have been sentenced in connection with the operation. Houston drug dealer Melvin Sampson received 17½ years in prison after admitting that he brought patients to Recare, filled prescriptions and resold the drugs on the black market.
Recare nurse practitioner Tomi-Ko Bowers was sentenced to eight years, security guard Lester Stokes received five years and three months, and Surge Rx owner and pharmacist Jared Williams was sentenced to three years and six months.
The Drug Enforcement Administration and Conroe Police Department investigated the case. Prosecutors from the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas handled the prosecution.
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