Two residents of Staten Island were recently arrested by New York City police in connection with their roles in operating and directing a prescription drug trafficking ring that operated on Staten Island and in Brooklyn. The drug arrests included the two men alleged to be ringleaders and four others who were involved in the operation.
Police have alleged that the drug ring operated from August 2016 to October 2016. The six members of the ring have been charged with scheming to obtain the drugs from pharmacies and then sell them on the black market. The drug ring trafficked mostly in opioid painkillers. The operation is alleged to have fraudulently filled prescriptions for more than 2,800 oxycodone pills and then given the pills to the ring’s leader for sale on the black market.
The supposed leader of the ring is alleged to have sold oxycodone pills to an undercover NYPD officer on 15 separate occasions. Police allege that he sold 1,900 pills for $25,000 during these transactions. Authorities claim that most of the sales occurred near a Brooklyn high school and in a parking lot at a Home Depot store on Forest Avenue in Mariners Harbor. The six persons arrested were charged with conspiracy, criminal sale of a controlled substance and fraudulently obtaining the painkillers from local pharmacies.
The six defendants in this case face serious criminal charges. Despite the amount of evidence apparently accumulated by the police, they are each entitled to be presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Anyone facing similar charges may wish to consider consulting an experienced criminal defense attorney for an evaluation of the law and facts that govern the case and for an estimate of the likelihood of obtaining a favorable plea bargain or an outright acquittal.
Source: SILive, 2 Staten Island men busted in prescription drug trafficking ring
