Indictment Charges 9 Individuals with Obtaining Oxycodone in Fraudulent Prescription Scheme
SEP 25 (NEW HAVEN, Conn.) – Michael J. Ferguson Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration for New England and Deirdre M. Daly United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut announced that nine individuals have been charged by indictment with participating in a drug trafficking ring that obtained more than 80,000 oxycodone pills by way of fraudulent prescriptions.
“The diversion and trafficking of prescription narcotics is a serious threat to public health, and disrupting criminal organizations involved in this activity and prosecuting those involved is a priority of the U.S. Attorney’s Office,” said U.S. Attorney Daly. “I commend the DEA and all the members of the Tactical Diversion Squad for their efforts in this
long-running investigation.”
“The DEA is committed to investigating and bringing to justice those who illicitly distribute oxycodone,” said DEA Special Agent in Charge Ferguson. “Opiate abuse is a major problem in Connecticut and throughout New England. The diversion of prescription pain killers, in this case oxycodone, contributes to the widespread abuse of opiates, is the gateway to heroin addiction, and is devastating our communities. This investigation demonstrates the strength of collaborative law enforcement efforts in Connecticut and our strong partnership with the U.S. Attorney’s Office to aggressively pursue any group that traffics these drugs.”
According to court documents and statements made in court, in 2012, members of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s New Haven Tactical Diversion Squad began an investigation into a drug trafficking organization that manufactured fraudulent prescriptions for oxycodone and distributed the drug in the greater New Haven area. As part of the conspiracy, members of organization obtained the personal identifying information of medical practitioners and used the information to create fraudulent prescriptions. Conspiracy members also purchased legitimate prescriptions for oxycodone from individuals. The organization then used individuals, or “runners,” to fill the fraudulent prescriptions at pharmacies throughout Connecticut. Once a runner provided his or her personal information to a member of the organization, the runner’s information was kept on file and used to create other fraudulent prescriptions.
Since February 2013, the organization has stolen the personal identifying information of more than 50 doctors and medical professionals and fraudulently obtained more than 80,000 oxycodone pills.
On September 22, 2015, a federal grand jury in New Haven returned a six-count indictment charging the following individuals:
JULIAN CINTRON, a.k.a. “Papi” and Jay,” 36, of New Haven
DAVID THOMPSON, a.k.a. “Super Dave,” 41, of New Haven
ALEJANDRINO DeJESUS, a.k.a. “Baby Boo,” 37, of New Haven
ANGEL MATEO, a.k.a., “Chickyding,” 36, of New Haven
ROBERT WILLIAMS, a.k.a., “Bo,” “Positive” and “Shawn,” 35, of Meriden
LARISSA ARABOLOS, 25, of East Haven
MATTHEW GIGLIETTI, 35, of East Haven
CHRISTOPHER LEVIX, a.k.a. “Scarface,” 33 of New Haven
ANTHONY PALMIERI, a.k.a. “Ant” and “Turtle,” 38, of New Haven
As alleged in court documents, Cintron and Thompson have been leaders of the conspiracy since 2013. Cintron, Thompson and Arabolos manufactured fraudulent oxycodone prescriptions for the organization, and DeJesus, Mateo, Williams, Giglietti and Levix recruited and transported runners. Palmieri transported runners, and also distributed oxycodone obtained by Cintron and Thompson.
The indictment charges each of the defendants with one count of conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute oxycodone, an offense that carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 20 years, and one count of conspiracy to acquire oxycodone by fraud and forgery, an offense that carries a maximum term of imprisonment of four years.
The indictment also charges Thompson with two counts of possession with intent to distribute and distribution of oxycodone, and DeJesus with one count of possession with intent to distribute and distribution of heroin and cocaine, and one count of possession with intent to distribute and distribution of heroin. Each of these charges carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 20 years.
Cintron, Thompson, Williams, Arabolos, Giglietti, Levix and Palmieri were arrested on federal criminal complaints on September 10, 2015, and DeJesus was arrested on a federal criminal complaint on September 11, 2015. Mateo currently is in state custody.
The indictment also seeks the forfeiture of $10,207.39 that was seized from Palmieri’s residence on September 10, 2015, and five vehicles owned by several of the defendants.
U.S. Attorney Daly stressed that an indictment is not evidence of guilt. Charges are only allegations, and each defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
The DEA Tactical Diversion Squad includes members from the Greenwich, Shelton, Hamden, Vernon, West Hartford, Bristol and Willimantic Police Departments.
Filed under: General Problems
Do you think all those pills are only purchased by drug addicts in the underground market? No, we’re talking about pain patients who have lost access to pain management and basic health care because of the drug war. The DEA creates the underground market and then justifies its existence by cracking down on the very market it created.
Getting tired of repeating this. A real time, on line, computer system, such as used in other jurisdictions would solve this problem. The system detects poly pharmacy, double doctoring, phoney Rx’s and phoney patients,
A blacklist for all patients taking whatever drugs are currently on the DEA’s red flag list is not an answer. PDMPs that have been around for years are not proving to decrease the amount of drug overdoses. PDMPs are a great way for states to get federal dollars, but they are not addressing even a small portion of the issues involved.
And how many of the practitioners whose personal identifying information was stolen were unjustly accused of ‘being under investigation or being a pill mill’ by pharmacies if the practitioner was not yet aware their identity was being used fraudulently…….all it takes is putting a bogus phone number on the script instead of the real one. If the pharmacy is in a hurry to verify the script to meet the metrics, etc..most likely they might just call the one on the script instead of the one on record in the computer, so no one really ever gets the real office….
My first question is, is there really a bonafied epidemic of opiod abuse in Connecticut, or is this just because the DEA says so? I don’t doubt diversion is going on, but I learned to not trust pretty much anything that is a pronouncement of any of the various and sundry Statist bureaucracies, especially the DEA.
We have had 1%-2% of the population abusing some substance – other than alcohol & tobacco – since 1914… but since the population in 1914 was 100 million and now it is 300+ million we have MORE people abusing substances… but.. the same per-cent of the population with mental health disease of addictive personality. The 450,000 that die annually from Nicotine use/abuse and the 85,000 that die of alcohol use/abuse … apparently those lives are of less importance than the 16,000 that die of voluntarily abusing some opiate… We are only spending about $9000/drug addict/yr in trying to keep 6 million mental health patient with addictive personalities from self medicating the monkeys on their back or demons in their heads… about the same amount that we spend per person in their country just for healthcare .. at least our healthcare does save some lives…
Steve, I completely agree with you. The percentage of addicts, per capita, have not changed in 100 years. All of the Prohibitionist policies in that time period have changed nothing. The “war on drugs” is an unconscionable failure. We lock people in cages on account of what is fundamentally a mental health issue; this kind of treatment was what the English facility known as Bedlam was notorious for. In all the centuries since, in spite of our increased knowledge and our so-called improved civilization nothing has changed in this aspect. We need to try something different than militarized police forces, usurpation of Constitutionally guaranteed civil rights, handcuffs and cages. I’m all for decriminalization and treatment. I can’t guarantee that it will be any better, but common sense tells me it won’t get worse. As the current policies are an abject failure with 100 years of history as proof, it’s unethical and immoral to maintain the status quo and not at least try. Treatment is surely less expensive than the current monies spent and the lives that are destroyed, lives that could be redeemed.