Livingston
Doctor Sentenced to 15 Years in Prison for
His Role in a Major Narcotics Network -
Six others sentenced to prison in Newark
ring that distributed OxyContin
TRENTON
- Attorney General Paula T. Dow and Criminal
Justice Director Stephen J. Taylor announced
that seven people, including a Livingston
doctor, were sentenced to state prison for
their roles in a Newark-based narcotics
ring that distributed millions of dollars
a year in illegal prescription painkillers
such as OxyContin.
The
defendants sentenced yesterday had previously
pleaded guilty to racketeering charges filed
as a result of Operation Pandora, an investigation
led by the New Jersey State Police and the
Division of Criminal Justice.
The
investigation led to the arrest in January
2007 of the leader of the ring, Mohamed
Hassanain, 44, of West Orange, and 19 other
members. All of the defendants have pleaded
guilty. Hassanain pleaded guilty on July
31, 2009, while on trial, to racketeering
and money laundering. The state will recommend
that he be ordered to serve 18 years in
prison when he is sentenced.
According
to Director Taylor, Dr. Mario Comesanas,
53, of Livingston, was sentenced yesterday
to 15 years in prison by Superior Court
Judge Michael L. Ravin in Essex County.
He 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. Comesanas also
forfeited $593,000 seized in his home and
permanently forfeited his New Jersey medical
license.
Judge
Ravin yesterday also sentenced the following
six defendants who served as runners for
the ring, filling fraudulent painkiller
prescriptions at pharmacies in order to
supply the ring.
- Enin
Martin, 30, of West Orange, was
sentenced to 10 years in prison;
- Tereke
M. Hammond, 33, of Newark, was
sentenced to 15 years in prison;
- Stephanie
McLucas,
57, of Maplewood, was sentenced to 12
years in prison;
- Jason
Edwin Allen Jr.,
30, of Newark, McLucas’ son, was
sentenced to seven years in prison;
- Tasheemah
N. Tyson, 29, of Newark, was
sentenced to five years in prison; and
- Kimyatta
L. Jones,
31, of Newark, was sentenced to five years
in prison.
The
cases were 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.
Deputy Attorneys General Eliades and Ondris
represented the state at the sentencing
hearing yesterday.
Attorney
General Dow credited Detectives Thomas McEnroe
and others within the State Police Major
Crime and Intelligence Units 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, 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.
The
investigation determined that Hassanain
and his deputies within the ring provided
several hundred names a week to Dr. Comesanas,
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.
Hassanain’s
cousin, pharmacist Ahmed F. “Felix”Aly,
36, of Union, knowingly filled the forged
prescriptions at his pharmacy, RGN Pharmacy
on Elizabeth Avenue in Newark. Aly pleaded
guilty to racketeering on Oct. 30, 2009
and is awaiting sentencing. Prescriptions
were also filled at other pharmacies.
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. The Bronx
ring in turn sold some of the drugs to a
ring in the Boston area.
On
Jan. 25, 2007, the investigating agencies
executed search warrants at 10 locations
and upon five vehicles utilized by the enterprise.
More than 40,000 narcotics pills, approximately
$650,000 in cash, nine weapons, and thousands
of prescriptions, both blank and executed,
were recovered. The state seized $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 $593,000
in cash forfeited by Comesanas.
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