ABINGDON, Va. (rbs news now) — A Martinsville-based doctor convicted of illegally prescribing hundreds of thousands of opioid pills was sentenced Tuesday to 40 years in federal prison.

Joel Smithers, 42, of Texarkana, Texas, was found guilty in December 2024 of one count of maintaining a place for the purpose of illegally distributing controlled substances and 466 counts of illegally prescribing Schedule II drugs after a three-week jury trial in U.S. District Court in Abingdon.

Prosecutors said Smithers ran his Martinsville office like a drug operation from 2015 to 2017, prescribing opioids such as oxymorphone, oxycodone, hydromorphone, and fentanyl to every patient who walked through his doors.

Most patients traveled hundreds of miles to obtain prescriptions, and Smithers collected more than $700,000 in cash and credit card payments, according to a news release.

“This defendant’s actions betrayed his oath to his patients, his community, and the healthcare system at large,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Robert N. Tracci. “Today’s sentence reflects the seriousness of these crimes, and the destruction wrought by the opioid epidemic in our communities.”

Christopher C. Goumenis, Special Agent in Charge of the DEA Washington Division, said Smithers registration to prescribe controlled substances had been revoked in 2019.

Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares said Smithers “operated like a drug dealer with a prescription pad, flooding communities with addictive and deadly opioids, all while pocketing hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

The release said Smithers was previously convicted in 2019, but a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on jury instructions in cases involving health care providers led to a retrial.

At sentencing, the court found Smithers perjured himself, led an extensive criminal operation, and abused his medical position of trust, the release.

The case was investigated by the DEA’s Tactical Diversion Squads in Roanoke and Bristol, the Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, and multiple local law enforcement agencies across Virginia.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Randy Ramseyer and Corey Hall and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney M. Suzanne Kerney-Quillen, a Senior Assistant Attorney General with Virginia’s Major Crimes and Emerging Threats Section, prosecuted the case.

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