Andrew Voegel-Podadera: Drug Diversion Case and Sentencing

Andrew Voegel-Podadera is a former University of Washington anesthesiology resident who pleaded guilty in federal court to obtaining controlled substances by fraud after stealing fentanyl, hydromorphone, and other narcotics from patients at three Seattle-area hospitals over roughly a year. He consumed the drugs while on duty and refilled the vials with saline, then returned them as “wastage.” On February 2, 2026, U.S. District Judge Kymberly K. Evanson sentenced him to one year of supervised release and 200 hours of community service, with no prison time.¹

What He Did

Voegel-Podadera worked as a resident anesthesiologist in the UW medical system from 2022 to 2024, rotating through Seattle Children’s Hospital, Harborview Medical Center, and UW Medical Center.¹ He admitted stealing and using drugs on duty as far back as January 2024, and the pattern continued for roughly a year.²

The drugs he diverted included fentanyl, hydromorphone, remifentanil, and sufentanil, all potent narcotics used in anesthesia care.³ The method was consistent. Early in his shifts he consumed medications intended for patients, refilled the vials with saline, and returned them to the hospital pharmacy documented as unused waste.¹ The federal complaint also noted a prior history at Harborview of late and undocumented wastage, and long gaps between the withdrawal and administration of controlled substances, though no formal intervention followed at the time.⁴

How He Was Caught

On December 27, 2024, at Seattle Children’s Hospital, an attending physician noticed Voegel-Podadera drawing what the criminal complaint called “excessive amounts of fentanyl” into syringes for patients who did not need them. The same attending had observed unexplained delays and absences from the operating room and reported the behavior to hospital staff.³

The hospital tested the substances he had returned as wastage that day. The syringes contained saline, not the controlled substances that had been dispensed for three pediatric patients.³ He was placed on leave in December 2024, and the DEA’s Seattle Diversion Group received a formal report of suspected diversion in January 2025.⁴

Patients at Risk

Because the vials were refilled with saline, children in his care may not have received the pain medication their doctors ordered. He was also treating patients while impaired by the drugs he had stolen. On the day he was caught, he treated three patients at Seattle Children’s Hospital, one of them just 11 days old.¹

U.S. Attorney Neil Floyd called it “chilling to think that he took powerful narcotics while a tiny baby needed his full and unimpaired attention.”¹ No specific reports of physical injury or adverse clinical outcomes for individual patients have been made public.

Charges, Plea, and Sentence

The DEA and the FDA’s Office of Criminal Investigations ran the joint investigation.¹ On June 12, 2025, the DEA served Voegel-Podadera with an Immediate Suspension Order stripping his authority to prescribe controlled substances, and he was arrested at his residence on June 24, 2025. He was initially charged with two counts under 21 U.S.C. § 843 of acquiring a controlled substance by misrepresentation, fraud, deception, and subterfuge.³

The case was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington on July 9, 2025, and assigned to Judge Evanson.⁵ On October 30, 2025, he pleaded guilty to a single count of obtaining controlled substances by fraud.¹ The statutory maximum for the offense was four years in prison.⁶

At the February 2, 2026 sentencing, Judge Evanson imposed one year of supervised release and 200 hours of community service. She called the conduct “a serious offense … the consequences of which could have been more serious and tragic.”¹ He was 36 at the time.

License and Career Fallout

Voegel-Podadera was terminated from his residency program and lost all privileges and access at the three hospitals where he had trained.² He also surrendered his DEA registration, which had authorized him to prescribe controlled substances.¹

The Washington Medical Commission entered an Agreed Order indefinitely suspending his medical license (number 61289341) after finding he had diverted controlled substances from anesthesiology cases for personal use. Under that order, he may seek reinstatement after three years.⁷ The Justice Department’s press release described a surrender of his medical license for at least five years, a discrepancy that may reflect different terms between the federal plea and the state licensing action.¹

1
U.S. Department of Justice. Former Anesthesiology Resident Sentenced for Stealing and Using Narcotic Pain Medicine
2
KOMO News. Former UW Anesthesiology Resident Stole Patients’ Narcotics
3
Drug Enforcement Administration. UW Medicine Resident Physician at Seattle Children’s Hospital Charged for Drug Diversion
4
The Daily UW. UW Medicine Resident Arrested for Diverting Controlled Substances
5
CourtListener. United States v. Voegel-Podadera
6
Cornell Law Institute. 21 U.S.C. § 843 – Prohibited Acts C
7
Washington Medical Commission. King County Physician Indefinitely Suspended