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Long Island resident Daniel Russo, age 44, of the village of Cedarhurst in Nassau County, pleaded guilty to multiple charges, including conspiring to distribute and possess oxycodone, in federal court in Brooklyn on Friday, Feb. 17.
Federal prosecutors said Russo, who owned and operated Russo’s Pharmacy in Far Rockaway, Queens, conspired with other medical professionals and employees to fill fraudulent prescriptions for oxycodone.
Between March 2011 and June 2014, he dispensed thousands of the pills in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash.
Investigators said Russo’s co-conspirators delivered hundreds of fraudulent oxycodone prescriptions to Russo’s Pharmacy and would then retrieve the pills to be sold elsewhere.
Russo also filed false corporate and personal income tax returns between 2012 and 2016 in an effort to conceal the illegal proceeds, prosecutors said. In all, he failed to report over $1 million in earnings, much of that deriving from his illegal drug scheme.
“Russo was a drug dealer in a white coat,” US Attorney Breon Peace said in a statement. “He abused his pharmacy license and the trust placed in him by the community to illegally distribute enormous amounts of oxycodone, spreading misery in the community and fueling addiction, all to enrich himself.”
Russo pleaded guilty to the following crimes:
- Conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute oxycodone
- Distribution and possession of oxycodone
- Nine counts of filing false personal and corporate tax returns
He now faces up to 20 years behind bars for each drug count and up to three years for each tax count.
Prosecutors said the scheme has resulted in more than a dozen doctors being convicted of crimes relating to the distribution of oxycodone.
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