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A Manhattan physician was indicted over a drug-dealing scheme during which he allegedly wrote prescriptions for tablets — together with opioids and Adderall — that had been then offered on the road, prosecutors stated Wednesday.
Dr. Noel Smith, a Tribeca household doctor, is accused of writing scripts for 5 males who then conspired to distribute the tens of hundreds of the tablets by way of unlawful street-level gross sales on Staten Island, in keeping with the Manhattan District Lawyer’s Workplace.
The drug ring was busted after investigators discovered Smith was allegedly prescribing managed substances in a “method inconsistent with public well being and security,” prosecutors stated.
The doc is accused of writing prescriptions for Adderall, Klonopin and Suboxone for 5 of the boys: Timothy Bonaguro, Ivan Iorizzo, Mark Lanfranchi, Louis Ventafredda and Christopher Gorga, a NYCHA worker.
The lads, together with alleged affiliate Anthony Santo, devised a scheme that maximized their hauls of tablets and allowed to construct up a mountain of medication, prosecutors charged. They might fill the prescriptions that had been written of their names and assume the id of each other to acquire as many tablets as attainable earlier than hawking them.
The accused sellers carried out related schemes with alleged associates Elia Albanese and Carmine Russo to get oxycodone tablets from a special Midtown Manhattan physician, prosecutors stated.
Metropolis officers had been following the drug ring by way of a wiretap investigation for one 12 months, in keeping with the DA’s Workplace.
Smith was charged with a number of counts of felony sale of a prescription for a managed substance by a practitioner and pleaded not responsible in Manhattan Supreme Court docket on Wednesday. The opposite eight defendants males had been hit with a slew of expenses, starting from the felony sale of a prescription for a managed substance and id theft.
Six others additionally pleaded not responsible. Bonaguro, Gorga, Lanfranchi had been awaiting arraignment.
As a result of the fees are usually not bail eligible, the boys had been launched, although prosecutors requested they give up their passports.
“As alleged, these defendants used the continued opioid disaster to use the struggling and habit of others. And to make issues worse, a trusted Manhattan physician prescribed tablets to the defendants, which had been then offered illegally to New Yorkers,” stated District Lawyer Alvin Bragg stated in a press release.
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