Boise nurse practitioner sentenced to prison for drug conspiracy [Video]

BOISE, Idaho — This article originally appeared in the Idaho Press. 

A Boise nurse practitioner has been sentenced to prison for conspiracy to distribute controlled substances.

Angela Kathryn Hughes, 50, was ordered to serve four years in federal prison, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced Thursday. Hughes and her co-conspirator, 39-year-old Boise woman Sydney Neal, issued illegitimate prescriptions for narcotics oxycodone, oxycodone acetaminophen, and hydrocodone acetaminophen between January 2022 and March 2023, the office said in its release.

Additionally, in exchange for prescriptions, Hughes received cash, a portion of the pills from the prescriptions, and other controlled substances such as methamphetamine, the release said.

Hughes, Neal and others conspired “to knowingly and intentionally distribute Schedule II controlled substances outside the usual course of professional practice and without a legitimate medical purpose,” the release said. “The unlawful prescriptions Hughes …