Dedham man charged in alleged prescription drug scam

By Michele Morgan Bolton, Globe Correspondent

A Dedham man was charged earlier this week with allegedly stealing almost 2,000 painkillers over the course of three months via his position as a courier of prescriptions for the Veterans Administration.

Michael Aprille, 46, of Riverside Drive, was charged by federal authorities in US District Court in Boston with acquiring the narcotics by misrepresentation, fraud, subterfuge, or deception. Aprille, who is on pretrial release, could not be reached for comment, and his federally appointed defender, Ian Gold, did not return a call for comment.

The oxycodone, OxyContin, Percocet, and morphine tablets were intended for military veterans around the state, according to a 29-page affidavit submitted to the court by special agent William G. Nelson of the US Office of Veterans Affairs, Inspector General's Office.

In the court papers, Nelson described the alleged scheme that took place earlier this year between January and March. He said Aprille siphoned the painkillers from their bottles and resealed them while making his Tuesday and Thursday pickups and deliveries to the Veterans Administration pharmacies in West Roxbury, Jamaica Plain, and a VA mail room in Brockton.

Nelson said Aprille stole from packages intended for veterans around the country, including some in Walpole and Brockton, and was a "wholesale distributor" of the medicines he allegedly took.

Investigators discovered the scam after veterans began reporting that the mailed prescriptions they received were missing pills. But officials said the manner in which the tablets were extracted, and containers resealed, made it possible that even more clients might not have noticed their prescriptions had been altered.

Federal officials were allegedly able to catch Aprille in the act after conferring with the pharmacists who filled prescriptions, counting the pills, and then intercepting the bottles after they were mailed, to count the contents again.

On Jan. 28, for example, Nelson said he and other detectives for the VA observed a pharmacist prepare a prescription with 56 oxycodone tablets for a veteran in Walpole. But after Aprille allegedly handled the package, 26 tablets were missing and just 30 remained, he said in the affidavit.

Nelson also reported that he spotted Aprille on Feb. 4, while in his official vehicle, allegedly swallow pills as he was parked in Dedham outside Santoro’s Sicilian Trattoria on Bridge Street. Nelson said Aprille had allegedly met others at the same establishment previously and may have observed some material changing hands.

Details were not available on when Aprille returns to court, nor on the status of his job. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant US Attorney Anthony E. Fuller, who also did not return a call for comment.

Michele Morgan Bolton can be reached at mmbolton1@verizon.net.