98 people have been arrested in a prescription drug trafficking bus that spanned Queens, Staten Island and Long Island. One of those charged is a Long Island doctor with links to last year’s Medford pharmacy massacre. Jonathan Dienst reports.
A major crackdown on prescription drug abuse has resulted in nearly 100 people being arrested and charged in New York City and Long Island.
Doctors, nurse practitioners and drug peddlers who went doctor shopping for prescriptions are among those charged.
Investigators say one doctor who wrote prescriptions linked to the suspects in the Medford pharmacy massacre on Long Island last year is among those charged.
About 10 suspects on Staten Island were also arrested for allegedly going from doctor to doctor to get prescriptions so they could sell drugs like Oxycodone on the street, officials said.
In announcing the federal, state and local law enforcement initiative to combat the growing threat of prescription drug trafficking and abuse, U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch said the approach involves criminal investigation and prosecution but also the use of civil enforcement, regulatory action and community outreach.
The crackdown comes after last year's Medford pharmacy shooting where four people were killed, as well as an attempted pharmacy heist in Harlem in April where a retired police lieutenant shot and killed an armed suspect.
Lynch said Wednesday that "the stakes could not be higher, as reflected by the murder of four people last June."
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