MONROE — The Web site for the Monroe Pain Center lists its founder and owner Dr. Oscar Linares as an assistant professor at the University of Toledo Medical Center.

U.S. Rep. John Dingell (D., Dearborn) awarded to Dr. Linares the Great Seal of the United States, the highest accolade that can be bestowed by the state of Michigan, according to the Web site.

But the government alleges Dr. Linares operated a large-scale prescription mill out of the clinic on Laplaisance Road, prescribing OxyContin and other painkillers to up to 250 patients a day, and fraudulently billed Medicare for more than $57 million.

The Cuban-born doctor, who obtained his medical degree in the Dominican Republic, was arrested Wednesday after federal agents and police raided the clinic in a shopping center on LaPlaisance Road near I-75.

Dr. Linares, 53, is charged in a criminal complaint with unlawfully distributing prescription drug controlled substances and health-care fraud. He appeared in U.S. District Court on Wednesday and was released after posting a security bond.

According to the complaint unsealed Wednesday, roughly 4,000 patients from Michigan, Ohio, and other states were prescribed more than 2 million painkillers from April 1, 2008, to March 24, 2010, at the clinic.

Some patients who were prescribed controlled drugs by Dr. Linares and other doctors at the clinic did so without seeing him or the doctors and sometimes the clinic filled prescriptions for people when it knew they were prescribed painkillers by other doctors, agents said in the complaint's sworn statement.

A worker told agents that sometimes there would be a line of people waiting outside when the pain-center doors opened and employees were given $25 bonuses if the clinic processed more than 200 patients a day, the complaint said.

If convicted, Dr. Linares faces 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine. He could not be reached for comment Thursday night.

Special Agent Rich Isaacson of the Drug Enforcement Administration said his office, with the help of Michigan State Police and Monroe County sheriff's deputies, began nearly simultaneous searches of the clinic, Dr. Linares' nearby Lake Drive home in Bolles Harbor on Lake Erie, and a home on Skylark Drive, all in Monroe Township.

Search warrants were executed on assets that investigators say were obtained through the alleged illegal activities, including four bank accounts, held by Dr. Linares, seven vehicles, and two boats.

According to its Web site, the Monroe Pain Center, established in 2006, offers treatment services such as pain medication, hypnotherapy, orthopedic surgery, and neuro/spine surgery.

Dr. Linares is licensed to practice medicine in Michigan and Ohio. His license with Michigan's Department of Community Health will expire in 2014 and the Ohio Medical Board has approved his certification until 2012.

According to records with the Ohio Medical Board, Dr. Linares obtained his medical degree in 1982 from Central Del Este in Dominican Republic. However, the DEA pulled the Monroe Township doctor's certification to prescribe painkillers after he was arrested because agents felt his ability to do so was an imminent danger to public health and safety.

"It is not insignificant there was an immediate suspension order served that will not allow him to prescribe controlled substances until he goes before an administrative law judge," Agent Isaacson said.

The University of Toledo yesterday terminated Dr. Linares as a clinical community-based faculty member, has about 1,300 volunteer positions.

"At no time during his volunteer faculty appointment, which began July 1, 2008, did Oscar Linares participate in the education or training of medical students or residents, nor did he ever provide health care at UTMC," said Lawrence J. Burns, UT vice president for external affairs. The University of Toledo Medical Center is the former Medical College of Ohio.

"Community-based volunteer faculty are uncompensated physicians who typically collaborate with the university on research projects and/or provide third and fourth-year medical students with the chance to observe the spectrum of clinical specialty and subspecialty opportunities," Mr. Burns said.

Dr. Linares had offices on North Monroe Street in Monroe and in Flat Rock before he opened the pain center on Laplaisance, where parking attendants were hired to help direct traffic, agents said.

Employees who worked the parking lot, the complaint said, had complained to Dr. Linares about pills being sold to which he responded: "There is nothing I can do. I'm not the police."

According to the affidavit, agents began investigating the pain center after receiving complaints from pharmacies in Ohio and Michigan and the Michigan State Police's Monroe area narcotics enforcement team. Activity involving prescriptions sent up a red flag about possible illegal activity, including multiple patients living at the same addresses, sometimes up to four and five people who listed the same home.

Toledo pharmacist Greg Schafer told The Blade he and other pharmacists were suspicious about prescriptions from from Dr. Linares' clinics, but there was nothing they could do but fill them.

"I didn't think it was right. They had legal prescriptions and there was no questions that they were legal," he said. "I had a problem with it. But I was not in a position to refuse to fill it. Every pharmacy is faced with this."

Contact Mark Reiter at: markreiter@theblade.com or 419-724-6199.

First Published March 25, 2011, 4:30 a.m.