Fort Lauderdale doctor sentenced to 10 years in jail after getting caught selling meth

David J. Neal
·4 min read

Fort Lauderdale Dr. Carlton Cash had a still-active Florida medical license and, the Justice Department said, raked in $180,000 a year in disability payments from a 2004 car crash. Now, Cash has time — 10 years in federal prison after being sentenced last week on five counts of dealing crystal methamphetamine.

The 49-year-old’s online Florida Department of Health profile says his license is set to expire March 31 and that he claims licenses in New York, Kentucky, Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama, Arkansas and Tennessee. Cash had been an emergency room physician until 2014.

The Drug Enforcement Administration, assisted by the Broward Sheriff’s Office, spent eight months stringing together buys from a Cash customer who turned into an informant after he got busted selling $1,600 of meth to a BSO undercover officer.

Flip of a salesman

According to Cash’s factual proffer statement, the agreed upon facts that go with a guilty plea, the middleman sold a BSO undercover detective one ounce of meth for $1,600 on Dec. 5, 2019. The DEA watched the salesman and Cash drive away from his apartment in Cash’s car.

Eleven days later, the DEA told the middleman that he’d sold to an undercover detective, and the possible prison time consequences convinced the middleman to become a cooperating defendant. He said Cash sold him the ounce of meth for $800 and that the doctor gets meth in one pound shipments from California.

On Jan. 29, 2020, the man texted Cash that his customer liked the meth. Cash replied, “Of course, he liked it. It’s high grade s--- from south Cali (California). Probably made in Mexico.”

Then, Cash texted, “The Luce (short for “Lucy,” slang for meth) I can have ready is already crushed, is that OK?”

The middleman bought an ounce of 99% pure meth for $800 at Cash’s Victoria Park Road home.

Three and a half weeks after that sale to the middleman working with investigators, Cash sent the man a panicked text message:

“I was just paid a VERY uncomfortable visit by the drug task force investigators of the Broward County Sheriff Dept. They told me they knew enough to present a case to get a search warrant and probably arrest me if I didn’t immediately voluntarily cease my illegal activities that would probably result in confiscation of my house and at least 5-10 years in prison BEFORE parole!

“So, needless to say, my ass is SCARED and will do EXACTLY what they said to get them off my case!!! Therefore, I’m completely finished!! So, you know what that means. Good luck!”

Cash’s admission of facts states he had “exhibited anxiety and paranoia that has been attributed to his drug usage.”

The doctor’s Feb. 23 abrupt retirement text message was followed by a Feb. 26 meeting with the buyer at Georgie’s Alibi Monkey Bar in Wilton Manors. Cash insisted he’d been visited by BSO but was still willing to sell him methamphetamine.

And, eight days later, Cash made another sell.

Butt dialing and COVID pricing

A March 5, 2020 sale at Cash’s home showed he might not be an honest wholesaler — he sold the middleman cooperating with authorities 25.84 grams of meth, just short of an ounce, but for the same $800.

They met at a Fort Lauderdale Trader Joe’s on March 27. From the driver’s seat of a Cadillac SUV with an unidentified passenger, Cash handed the buyer a potato chip bag with two ounces of meth for $1,600. After the deal was done, Cash’s confession says, he “inadvertently dialed” the man’s cell phone and Cash’s conversation with his passenger got recorded. He said the middleman could resell the meth at $225 for an eighth of an ounce, a 125% markup.

Cash negotiated a price of $900 for half an ounce for his next deal with the informant, on Aug. 5, 2020. The pandemic hurt the local supply, he explained. His own supplier out of California had died from COVID-19 complications.

The buyer agreed. When Cash came out of his house, he was arrested. In his condominium, DEA agents found 6.8 grams of meth, a loaded Keltec .380 pistol and a loaded Kimber .45-caliber pistol.

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