Maryland Man Sentenced to 24 Months for Conspiracy With Annandale Doctor to Distribute 148000 Milliliters of Lean

ROANOKE, Va. — Obioma Alozie Ndubuka, 32, also known as “Bank Roll,” of Derwood, Maryland, was sentenced to 24 months in federal prison on May 8 in U.S. District Court here after pleading guilty in February to one count of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute Schedule II controlled substances and to acquire promethazine-codeine solution by fraud.

Ndubuka and another Maryland man conspired with Annandale-based physician Dr. Rotimi Iluyomade, who was previously convicted of illegally distributing more than 7,000 oxycodone pills, 34,000 milliliters of hydrocodone-chlorpheniramine solution known as Tussionex, and 107,000 milliliters of promethazine-codeine solution known as lean.

The total volume of promethazine-codeine solution involved reached 107,000 milliliters while the hydrocodone-chlorpheniramine solution reached 34,000 milliliters, according to the Department of Justice.

The sentencing completes the federal case against Ndubuka. Prior to the conspiracy, Iluyomade maintained a medical practice that issued prescriptions outside legitimate medical need. The guilty plea and sentence shift the operational status from active distribution network to closed channel, with Ndubuka now required to serve the full prison term followed by supervised release.

The second co-conspirator was convicted but has not yet been sentenced.

Downstream, the Drug Enforcement Administration must now update its registrant records and inspection priorities to reflect the removal of Iluyomade’s prescribing authority and the imprisonment of Ndubuka. Federal prosecutors in the Western District of Virginia will next move for final sentencing of the remaining defendant, which will trigger automatic notifications to state medical boards and pharmacy boards under existing controlled-substance reporting protocols.

The convictions also require the U.S. attorney’s office to furnish sentencing data to the U.S. Sentencing Commission for its annual report on controlled-substance trafficking cases.

This case forms part of the Justice Department’s long-running effort to prosecute physicians and street-level distributors who divert prescription opioids and cough syrup containing codeine. Iluyomade’s conviction on charges tied to more than 148,000 milliliters of lean and other drugs stands as one of the larger documented illegal-distribution cases involving a single Virginia-area prescriber in the past decade, per the department’s May 8 release.

The U.S. attorney’s office for the Western District of Virginia handled the prosecution.