Feds raid suspected Dearborn pill mill

DEARBORN, Mich. (WJBK) - Neighbors said addicts would line-up at the office of a Dearborn physician's office for opioid prescriptions. That ended Thursday when federal agents raided a home and office of the doctor.

Dozens of boxes were loaded into undercover cars Thursday afternoon, all containing evidence from inside Detroit Visiting Physicians on Dearborn. The officers belong to Dr. Fares Yasin, who is accused of overprescribing opioids and other drugs.

Erica Jackson is a former patient from Dr. Yasin.

"I never seen nothing. They seemed pretty professional," Jackson said.

She stopped by on Thursday and told FOX 2 she's been seeing Yasin for about a year. She says she never noticed anything odd, except the long wait time.

"Sometimes 2-3 hours," she said. "I just thought he overbooked himself."

The feds raided Yasin's home in Canton first and searched his six cars. 

The office in Dearborn was once a Chinese restaurant but nearby business owners say the lines out the door were no longer for Chinese food. 

"There'd be lines out around the building. People hanging out, drinking. Sitting around, waiting for what, we don't know. It's kind of odd for a family physician," Eric Ziembowski said. 

Ziembowski owns Refuge Skateboard Shop, just two doors down. Neighbors and other business owners complained to police and city for the past year after noticing vans full of patients being dropped off at the office.

"We were walking by one day and there was a lawn chair that they had sitting out front and there was a guy sitting in it and he literally looked dead," Ziembowski said.

Business owners and neighbors also say they've seen people dealing drugs and having sex in this parking lot. They also say they've seen pills disguised in other containers, like antacid bottles.

Court records show Yasin has a history of overprescribing controlled substances like Xanax, OxyContin and Vicodin - and in much higher than average doses. He's also accused of giving patients a dangerous mixture of drugs known as "the holy trinity."

"I've heard of pharmacists who will not take their prescriptions with that name on it," Ziembowski said. 

Neighbors and business owners are thankful to the city and police are cracking down on Yasin.

The FBI wouldn't say much and employees were not interested in talking to FOX 2. As for Yasin, he's nowhere to be found.