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PAYSON — A Utah County man has been arrested and accused of practicing medicine without a license, including handing out prescription medications and even administering morphine drips.
Edgar Flores, also known as Edgar Flores Bobadilla, 65, of Payson, was arrested Tuesday by the Utah Attorney General's Statewide Enforcement of Crimes Against Undocumented Residents task force for investigation of engaging in a pattern of unlawful activity, communications fraud, two counts of forgery, trafficking prescription drugs and practicing medicine without a license.
The investigation began in May when Payson police learned that Flores was practicing medicine out of his home and that he only took patients on a referral basis, a police booking affidavit states.
"Most of those patients are undocumented immigrants. Flores-Bobadilla himself is in the United States without proper documentation," the attorney general's office said in a statement.
A search warrant filed by Payson police in May says officers learned that Flores "was distributing morphine through IV drips from his residence without a medical license," and that he was receiving his medications from Mexico and Europe.
Detectives conducted a search of Flores' trash and found "several used syringes, IV needles, IV flushes, and several medication bottles designed to be used through intravenous injection," the warrant states, adding that all of the bottles had labels written in Spanish. "None of these medications were in the form of prescriptions, but appeared to be industrial use bottles. It was also noted that there were containers of syringes that appeared to have been purchased in bulk."
Police were also alerted to Flores because a patient "had been permanently disfigured" due to Flores' malpractice, the affidavit alleges.
In September, during a police operation using an undercover officer, Flores "misdiagnosed the undercover agent with multiple sclerosis, along with other ailments. Mr. Flores then demanded payments of multiple thousands of dollars in cash for medical services, which he said he would conduct at his residence. Mr. Flores also said that he would be able to 'cure' the undercover agent of the illness with his medical treatments but said multiple times that the undercover agent needed to keep the medical treatments 'confidential,'" according to the affidavit.
On Tuesday, "numerous medical supplies and medical instruments" were seized during a search of Flores' home, along with $140,000 in cash, fake Social Security cards, and fake Utah driver's licenses, according to the attorney general's office.
Police have requested that Flores be held without bail in the Utah County Jail pending trial because of him being "an extreme flight risk," the affidavit says.
"For months we've been investigating this case and have found Flores-Bobadilla took advantage of his patients and charged them a lot of money for his 'treatments,'" said Brendan Call, section chief of the attorney general's Investigations Division. "People paid thousands of dollars each, partly because undocumented workers often distrust the traditional system. And in these cases, he was carelessly and repeatedly putting their lives at risk."
Flores, who was convicted of sexual battery in 2015, is also part of a continuing criminal investigation into allegations of sex offenses, according to the affidavit.
Investigators say Flores saw "hundreds" of patients over the past few years. Anyone who believes they were a victim of Flores is asked to call the Utah Attorney General's Office at 801-281-1200.
