Bronx Daycare Center Harbors Drug Ring

What sounds like every parents nightmare—your child's sitters are drug criminals!—has become a reality for one group of Bronx parents. On Wednesday, authorities charged six local residents with operating a national prescription drug ring and using a local day care center as a major distribution base. According to federal court complaints, the defendants have been distributing drugs including ecstasy, Percocet, Viagra, and Xanax to various locations across the nation since October 2011. Drug Enforcement Administration agents discovered approximately 122,000 pills at four Bronx locations, many of which were being stored at an area day care center. “As alleged, these six defendants operated a veritable pill mill,” says Preet Bharara, the US attorney for the Southern District of New York. “The charged conduct was especially dangerous, as the defendants potentially victimized young children whose unsuspecting parents sent them to a day care center that allegedly doubled as a warehouse for thousands of their illegal pills.” A large quantity of pills were found in a closet just "several feet away" from the children's toys and furniture. The defendants were charged with conspiracy to violate the narcotics laws of the United States, and distribution and possession with intent to distribute oxycodone.