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Shirley Bass (no relation to the “Goldfinger” singer) and Sharee Bass “had access to blank prescription paper that is only available to state-authorized printing companies,” U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman said.
“Using sophisticated computer equipment,” he said, they swiped information from nearly a dozen New Jersey doctors and created the prescriptions using made-up names of patients.
The Basses paid a network of people to have the scripts filled at area pharmacies and then sold the pills — which pack twice the potency of morphine — on the black market, Fishman said. They also sold scripts of up to a dozen prescriptions to others for $200 to $300, he said.
Of nearly three dozen prescriptions bought by one confidential informant, the names of 11 different physicians from five different counties were counterfeited, Fishman said.
Federal authorities formally charged Sharee “Bambi” Bass — who served six months in state prison for a 1995 robbery conviction — Shirley “Pee Wee” Bass are formally charged with conspiring to distribute the drug. They had court appearances scheduled for this aftenoon.
U.S. Attorney Fishman credited agents with the DEA’s Tactical Diversion Squad, the FBI, the IRS and a group of local police departments, including those from Newark, Elizabeth, Clinton Township, and Toms River, as well as the Essex County Sheriff’s Office, for making the case, being handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Anthony J. Mahajan of the Narcotics/Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force Unit in Newark.
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