FALMOUTH — Dr. Ghassan Haj-Hamed, an internal medicine physician with an office here, was arrested Wednesday and charged with illegally prescribing pain-killing drugs.

        Dr. Haj-Hamed, a Cincinnati resident who also has offices in Bellevue and Cold Spring, was charged with 24 counts of unlawfully distributing prescription drugs, Pendleton County Sheriff Lark O'Hara said.

        The physician was arrested about 10:30 a.m. on U.S. 27 about seven miles north of Falmouth while on his way to work, the sheriff said. A “small amount” of drugs was confiscated, he said.

        The arrest culminates a two-year investigation by the sheriff's office, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the FBI and the Falmouth Police Department, Sheriff O'Hara said.

        “He was basically giving drugs to people we felt didn't need them,” Sheriff O'Hara said. The sheriff would describe the drugs involved only as “pain killers.”

        The investigation was prompted by “a lot of complaints from merchants” in downtown Falmouth about the volume of traffic at Dr. Haj-Hamed's office, Sheriff O'Hara said. “Things going on there just didn't add up,” he said.

        Dr. Haj-Hamed, a general practitioner specializing in internal medicine, has had an office at 125 W. Shelby St. for about three or four years, the sheriff said.

        After his office's initial investigation, “We pretty much turned it over to the DEA,” Sheriff O'Hara said.

        “It's the first one we've been involved with a doctor,” he said.

        The county's most pressing drug problem recently has been methamphetamine labs, he said; the department has closed three such illegal operations in recent months.

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