A Central California woman pleaded guilty May 5 to using doctors’ medical credentials to distribute controlled substances and help immigration applicants obtain “green cards.”
Chantelle Lavergne Woods, 54, of Nipomo, in San Luis Obispo County, pleaded guilty to one count of presentation of false immigration document or application and one count of possession with intent to distribute phendimetrazine, a weight-loss drug, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles.
Federal prosecutors claim Woods operated and managed the “Medical Weight Loss and Immigration Services” clinic in Arroyo Grande, on the coast about 175 miles north of Los Angeles.
Starting in February 2021, Woods knowingly misused the identities of three physicians to create hundreds of fake documents used by immigrants to obtain “green cards” as lawful permanent residents, or to adjust their immigration statuses….