Trafficking on rise in prescription drugs
FORT LEE, N.J. -- Police staked out a Dunkin' Donuts parking lot, secretly watched an illicit rendezvous, then trailed suspects to a nearby condominium. But when they swooped in, parallels to a routine drug raid vanished.
In the back of a green Jeep Cherokee, investigators found not heroin or cocaine but Zocor, 30 cases of the popular prescription anticholesterol drug manufactured by
Last month's seizures and arrests capped a six-month investigation, a counterattack on what authorities said is a growing underground market for pilfered pharmaceuticals that threatens to undermine consumer confidence in the safety of prescription medicine. By the time they were done, Bergen County and federal investigators working over two days had arrested 11 members of an alleged ring that they said stole millions of dollars worth of cholesterol medicine, blood-pressure pills, and Viagra from large US manufacturers.
Authorities also seized $1.2 million in cash, 29 guns, luxury cars, and a plasma TV. Without offering specifics, the local authorities said they have identified both traditional Mafia and Russian organized crime connections involved in the flourishing trade.
The reasons for a growing illicit prescription-drug trade are simple, say local law enforcement officials: the lure of easy money, a lack of serious criminal penalties for trafficking, and reluctance among manufacturers to report missing drugs to the police.
"These are very desirable commodities to steal," said Michael P. Peskoe, a former pharmaceutical industry executive and lawyer for the Food and Drug Administration who now practices in Boston. "They are light; they are quite expensive; and there's an opportunity to make large sums of money."
Last year the FDA identified "diversion" and "illegal redirection" of prescription drugs as a major problem because there is no easy way to distinguish legitimate drugs from ones that have been illegally sold into a so-called gray market in which unauthorized dealers peddle pills. Once drugs enter the gray market, they are difficult to track.
As a result, gray market drugs can end up on pharmacy shelves. That means consumers could be buying medicines that have been improperly stored, adulterated, or distributed after their expiration dates.
Sometimes, stolen drugs are peddled to consumers over the Internet.
Drug companies that were allegedly victimized by the thieves would not discuss details of the case. But collectively, New Jersey's drug manufacturers are worried about the problem, said Hollie Gilroy, spokeswoman for the Healthcare Institute of New Jersey, the state's trade group for pharmaceutical companies. "Our concern is the safety of patients," she said. "When you've got these other actors in the marketplace, it makes it a lot more difficult to ensure patient safety, and that's the overwhelming concern."
The 11 defendants, including five truck drivers, have made initial court appearances and been released on bail, but they have not yet entered pleas in court. Each has been charged with racketeering, theft, and conspiracy. A key figure in the case, David Pinski, 65, whose Fort Lee condominium was the scene of the March 18 police raid, has been charged with an additional count of money laundering.
Pinski's lawyer, Samuel R. DeLuca Jr., of Jersey City, said his client plans to plead not guilty. He said Pinski is a legitimate businessman, the owner of a retail T-shirt shop in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan.
Authorities say the ring's leaders had been honing their methods for several years, enlisting freight truck drivers who traversed New Jersey's industrial parks and interstate highways while stealing select boxes of drugs from their trailers.
Besides Zocor, Bergen County officials said, the ring stole Diovan and Lotrel, two drugs made by
Truck drivers involved in the racket rolled into deserted sections of industrial parks and opened up the backs of their trailers for middlemen, who would help them select particular drugs to steal, said Chief Michael Mordaga, the lead investigator for the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office.
As they trace the ring's activities, he said, detectives are following a trail through self-storage units throughout New Jersey. Authorities expect to eventually disrupt one or more of New Jersey's 900 licensed wholesalers, he said.
"We have been able to track down $3 million in thefts to these individuals, and we know there are millions more," he said. "A case of Viagra is the size of a telephone book, and the price on that is about $14,000."
Bergen County investigators last year disrupted illegal traffic in Serostim, a hormone manufactured by Rockland-based Serono Inc. that is used to prevent wasting syndrome in AIDS patients. It is a drug that also happens to be popular with bodybuilders.
Black marketeers were buying the drug from AIDS patients in New York and New Jersey and shipping it via overnight express to gyms in California. Express packages full of cash were sent back in return. Florida state investigators arrested 19 people last year after targeting a counterfeiting ring that shipped phony and diluted cancer drugs.
Pfizer disagreed with the characterization that it does not take action. "If appropriate, we report it to law enforcement," said Pfizer spokesman Bryant Haskins. "We don't ignore it. We try to find out how the theft occurred and by whom."
Christopher Rowland can be reached at crowland@globe.com. 
