NY Doctors Arrested in Major Rx Drug Sting

Ninety-eight people have been charged as part of a major crackdown on drug traffickers in New York; among those arrested were two doctors and a nurse, who were charged for illegally selling and prescribing painkillers, such as klonopin, methadone, and oxycodone. Allegedly, the doctors were selling oxycodone for cash and one had prescribed 782,032 oxycodone pills to patients that he knew were addicted. "Faced with the growing threat of prescription drug trafficking and abuse, this office and our partners have joined forces to coordinate our attack against a menace every bit as dangerous as trafficking in cocaine or other narcotics," says Loretta Lynch, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. "The stakes could not be higher, as reflected by the murder of four people last June during a pharmacy robbery in Suffolk County, and the December shooting death of a federal agent who tried to stop a similar robbery in Nassau County.” A Brooklyn pharmacist was also fined $105,000 for forging oxycodone prescriptions. The pharmaceutical-crime investigation began in February with district attorneys in Long Island and New York City coordinating with the U.S. attorney's office. Kathleen Rice of the Nassau County district attorney has said in a statement: "Pharmacy robberies, overdose deaths, drugged driving incidents and the illegal dispensation of prescription drugs are all on the rise."