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For Immediate Release:  
For Further Information:
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November 2, 2009

Office of The Attorney General
- Anne Milgram, Attorney General
Division of Criminal Justice
- Deborah L. Gramiccioni, Director

 

Division of Criminal Justice
609-292-4791

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Essex County Pharmacist Pleads Guilty for His Role in Multi-Million Dollar Prescription Drug Ring

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TRENTON – Attorney General Anne Milgram announced that an Essex County pharmacist has pleaded guilty for his role in a Newark-based narcotics ring that distributed millions of dollars a year in illegal prescription painkillers such as OxyContin.

Ahmed “Felix” Aly, of Union, pleaded guilty on Friday (Oct. 30) to second-degree racketeering before Superior Court Judge Joseph Cassini in Essex County, according to Criminal Justice Director Deborah L. Gramiccioni. Sentencing has been set for Dec. 14, at which time the state will recommend Aly be sentenced to state prison for a period of between 5 to 10 ten years. As part of the plea, Aly was also required to surrender his New Jersey Pharmacist License for life without the possibility of reinstatement.

In pleading guilty, Aly, a pharmacist at RGN Pharmacy in Newark, admitted that, in exchange for money, he knowingly filled or caused employees in his pharmacy to fill multiple fraudulent prescriptions which were given to runners who would then return them to others in the ring for distribution throughout the east coast.

Aly’s guilty plea was related to charges filed as a result of Operation Pandora, an investigation led by the New Jersey State Police and the Division of Criminal Justice, assisted by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

The investigation led to the arrest in January 2007 of the leader of the ring, Mohamed Hassanain, 43, of West Orange, and 19 other members. Hassanain pleaded guilty on July 31, while on trial, to racketeering and money laundering, charges contained in an Aug. 2, 2007 state grand jury indictment. The state will recommend that he be ordered to serve 18 years in prison when he is sentenced.

In pleading guilty, Hassanain admitted that between July 2005 and January 2007, he orchestrated the narcotics ring that sold approximately 40,000 OxyContin and Percocet pills per week. Most of the pills went to a distribution ring based in Bronx, N.Y. The Bronx ring in turn sold some of the drugs to a ring in the Boston area.

The charges stem from an investigation by the New Jersey State Police and Division of Criminal Justice, assisted by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. The case is being prosecuted by Supervising Deputy Attorney General Mark Eliades, chief of the Division of Criminal Justice Gangs & Organized Crime Bureau, and Deputy Attorneys General Mark Ondris and Paul Salvatoriello.

The investigation determined that Hassanain and his deputies within the ring provided several hundred names a week to Dr. Mario Comensanas, 53, of Livingston, who was paid up to $100 per name to write a “set” of prescriptions, including 60 OxyContin pills, 90 Percocet pills and vitamins for patients that did not exist or whom he never saw. Comensanas pleaded guilty on March 19, 2007 to first-degree racketeering and second-degree distribution of narcotics for writing thousands of fraudulent prescriptions for the ring. He is currently awaiting sentencing.

Hassanain, who ran the ring from his home in West Orange and his business on Clinton Avenue in Newark, admitted that he maintained various “stash” houses around the Essex County area where he would accumulate tens of thousands of pills per week for wholesale distribution. At the “stash” houses, pills were packaged in bulk and individuals from the Bronx would come weekly to transport the narcotics and provide Hassanain with tens of thousands of dollars.

On Jan. 25, 2007, the Division of Criminal Justice executed arrest warrants at 10 locations and upon five vehicles utilized by the enterprise. Consequently, more than 40,000 narcotics pills, approximately $650,000 in cash, approximately nine weapons, and thousands or prescriptions, both blank and executed, were recovered. The state placed liens against 14 parcels of real property allegedly acquired with the proceeds of the illegal enterprise.

Attorney General Milgram credited Detectives Thomas McEnroe and others within the State Police Major Crime Unit and detectives in the Division of Criminal Justice Gangs & Organized Crime Bureau – North Squad. She also credited the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration New Jersey Division, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Gerard P. McAleer of the Drug Enforcement Administration, 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 in the investigation.

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