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TRENTON - Attorney General
Anne Milgram announced that an Orange man
pleaded guilty today to racketeering for
his role as the lead runner in a Newark-based
narcotics ring that distributed millions
of dollars a year in illegal prescription
painkillers such as OxyContin.
William S. Leonard, 57,
of Orange, pleaded guilty before Superior
Court Judge Michael J. Nelson in Essex County
to first-degree racketeering, a charge contained
in an indictment obtained on Aug. 2, 2007,
by the Division of Criminal Justice Gangs
& Organized Crime Bureau.
Under the plea agreement,
Leonard faces a state prison sentence of
12 to 15 years. Judge Nelson scheduled Leonard’s
sentencing for Dec. 5. Deputy Attorney General
Mark Ondris took the plea for the Gangs
& Organized Crime Bureau.
Leonard admitted in court
that he acted as a lead runner for the drug
ring, coordinating the criminal activities
of other runners who filled fraudulent painkiller
prescriptions at pharmacies to supply the
ring. Under his plea agreement, Leonard
must cooperate in the state’s ongoing
investigation by providing truthful testimony
about his actions and those of his co-conspirators.
Three other runners for the ring pleaded
guilty previously.
The Aug. 2, 2007 indictment
charged 19 alleged members of the Newark-based
ring, including its alleged leader, Mohamed
Hassanain, 42, of West Orange with first
degree-racketeering and other charges. Hassanain
also was charged with being a leader of
a narcotics trafficking network, a first-degree
charge that carries a sentence of life in
prison. Some of the defendants, including
Hassanain, face various other charges including
second-degree drug and weapons offenses.
Hassanain had been arrested in January 2007,
along with many of the other defendants.
The charges resulted from
an investigation by the State Police and
the Division of Criminal Justice, assisted
by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
Supervising Deputy Attorney General Mark
Eliades and Deputy Attorney General Ondris
are prosecuting the case.
Dr. Mario Comesanas, 52,
of Livingston pleaded guilty in March 2007
to first-degree racketeering and second-degree
distribution of narcotics for writing thousands
of fraudulent prescriptions for the ring.
He faces a state prison sentence of 15 years,
and forfeited his state medical license
as well as nearly $600,000 in cash seized
in his home as proceeds of the fraudulent
prescriptions.
In pleading guilty, Comesanas
admitted he went to Hassanain’s home
on Edgar Road in West Orange to write thousands
of fraudulent painkiller prescriptions.
Hassanain’s cousin, pharmacist Ahmed
F. “Felix”Aly, 34, of Union,
is alleged to have knowingly filled the
forged prescriptions at his pharmacy, RGN
Pharmacy on Elizabeth Avenue in Newark.
He was charged in the indictment. Hassanain,
who sometimes uses the alias Mohamed Aly,
allegedly ran the ring from his business,
Lyons Avenue Auto Sales on Clinton Avenue
in Newark, as well as his home.
The investigation, which
began in mid-2006 and was dubbed “Operation
Pandora,” determined that the network
sold 20,000 to 30,000 OxyContin and Percocet
pills per week, with most going to a distribution
ring based in the Bronx, N.Y. The Bronx
ring in turn sold some of the drugs to a
distribution ring in the Boston area. Approximately
22,000 prescription pills were seized in
January when officers executed search warrants
at a number locations used by the Newark
ring.
Hassanain and his deputies
allegedly provided up to several hundred
names a week to Dr. Comesanas, who allegedly
was paid $100 per name to write a “set”
of prescriptions, including 60 OxyContin
pills, 90 Percocet pills and vitamins. Vitamins
allegedly were included to make the prescriptions
appear more legitimate. Hassanain and his
deputies allegedly used numerous “runners”
to fill the prescriptions at various pharmacies
using fraudulent identifications.
The three runners who pleaded
guilty previously are Stephanie “Sara”
McLucas, 55, of Maplewood; her son, Jason
Edwin Allen Jr., 28, of Newark; and Jashima
Brice, 56, of Irvington. McLucas faces 12
years in prison on her plea to first-degree
racketeering and third-degree failure to
file tax returns. She forfeited $22,090
seized from her home by investigators as
racketeering proceeds. Allen faces seven
years in prison on his plea to second-degree
racketeering. Brice was sentenced to six
years in prison in July after pleading guilty
to second-degree racketeering.
As a result of the grand
jury action in August 2007, the state obtained
a court order seizing $4.4 million in assets
as proceeds of racketeering, including $3.6
million in real estate, a $95,000 Mercedes
S-550 owned by Hassanain, and the cash found
in Comesanas’ home.
A full list of the indicted
defendants can be found in the Aug. 2, 2007
press release at the Attorney General’s
Web site: www.njpublicsafety.com. The indictment
is merely an accusation and the other defendants
are presumed innocent until proven guilty.
Attorney General Milgram
credited detectives in the State Police
Major Crime Unit and investigators in the
Division of Criminal Justice - Gangs &
Organized Crime Bureau. She also credited
the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration
New Jersey Division, under the direction
of Special Agent in Charge Gerard P. McAleer,
the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office,
members of the NY/NJ High-Intensity Drug
Trafficking Areas program, and the New York
State Police for assisting the investigation.
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