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Raymond Morales, 33, was sentenced to seven years in prison, followed by three years’ probation, for organizing a scheme to obtain oxycodone pills through fraudulent prescriptions.
Eleven people have been charged as a result of an investigation by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency’s tactical diversion squad, which draws from area police departments.
According to court documents and statements made in court, the DEA unit began an investigation into a drug trafficking organization that manufactured fraudulent prescriptions for oxycodone and distributed the drug in the greater New Haven area.
As part of the conspiracy, members of the organization obtained the personal identifying information of medical practitioners and used the information to create fraudulent prescriptions, court documents show.
Members also purchased legitimate prescriptions for oxycodone from individuals. The organization then used “runners’’ to fill the fraudulent prescriptions at pharmacies throughout Connecticut.
Morales recruited runners to fill fraudulent prescriptions, and had a close associate who worked as a pharmacy technician at a pharmacy in New Haven and assisted Morales in filling the fake prescriptions, the investigation showed.
Between February 2013 and September 2015, the organization stole the personal identifying information of more than 50 doctors and medical professionals and fraudulently obtained more than 80,000 oxycodone pills. Investigators identified more than 800 fraudulent prescriptions passed by members of the organization using more than 270 different “patient” names.
Nearly all of the runners employed by the conspiracy held state-sponsored medical insurance, so the costs of the prescriptions were billed to Medicaid. Members of the drug trafficking organization then sold the oxycodone for $20 to $30 per 30 milligram pill.
Morales pleaded guilty in June to one count of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute oxycodone.