Police: Busted Dearborn Medical Clinic 'Basically A Pill Factory'

DEARBORN (WWJ) - Two people are facing charges following a Michigan State Police raid on a Dearborn medical office.

MSP First Lt. Mike Shaw says 50-year-old Dr. Mohammad Derani — of the Dearborn Medical Clinic, on Warren east of Greenfield — was practically handing out prescriptions of opioid drugs.

Derani's medical license has been suspended.

"This doctor has prescribed over half-a-million opioids from January to now," Shaw said. "Half-a-million pills that this doctor has put on the streets of Dearborn that floats around; and where do you think those end up? People need money, too. So what happens is they get prescribed, they use half, they sell another half on the street. So now you get more crime that happens here in Dearborn, goes into Detroit, goes through Michigan."

Dearborn Police Chief Ronald Haddad called the business "basically a pill factory."

Dan, who works at Dabaja's Tire Center nearby, said he was not surprised to see police descend on the clinic.

"I knew this was going to happen; we already knew," he told WWJ Newsradio 950. "We event told them 'Be careful,' but, you know, he said, 'I'm not doing nothing wrong. People are sick, we've got to give them prescriptions.'"

"He's been a good doctor. I mean, we see him all the time; he's actually one of our customers," added Dan, who declined to give his last name. "But lately there have been people waiting like 20, 30 people on the line every day, and Dearborn police have been coming every once and awhile."

Shaw said neighbors reported seeing people lined up around the clock; some of them having traveled to the clinic from out-of-state.

"Could you imagine living in that red house behind me there, and you've got people lined up around his neighborhood, sitting in chairs? They actually ordered food to come into this place," Shaw said. "When we hit the door, there were people out here actually smoking marijuana right in the doorway as our officers hit the place."

Derani's West Bloomfield home was also raided on Thursday.

Derani, along with his office manager — a Detroit woman in her 20s  — are scheduled to appear in court for an arraignment on Friday.