MINEOLA, N.Y. — Scammers hack doctors' e-prescription accounts, write tens of thousands of fake orders for addictive drugs, then force runners to pick up the drugs from pharmacies in multiple states and illegally resell them online. New York state prosecutors announced Friday that they can.
Prosecutors say the man, Devin Anthony Magarian, 21, of Kissimmee, Fla., is the leader of a sophisticated drug ring, and he pleaded not guilty during a Long Island court appearance and was ordered briefly detained. .
Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly said the scheme was the modern-day equivalent of stealing a doctor's prescription.
He said vulnerabilities were exposed in the e-prescription system that doctors and other prescribers use to electronically send prescriptions directly to pharmacies.
“The defendant found a way to game the system,” Donnelly said Friday in his office at the Mineola courthouse. “This reminds us of drug dealers turned cybercriminals.”
Magarian faces 19 criminal charges, including unlawful sale of a controlled substance and unlawful diversion of a prescription drug.
“My client is 21 years old and has no criminal history. This is an expedited judgment and I look forward to my client being completely exonerated,” attorney Douglas Rankin said in an email. said.
Prosecutors say the scheme included secretly obtaining doctors' credentials and creating fraudulent electronic prescription accounts.
Magarian then generated false patient information and used it to generate thousands of prescriptions for drugs such as oxycodone, promethazine, and codeine. Those prescriptions were then shipped to pharmacies along the East Coast, including Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Florida, Georgia, Texas, and the Carolinas.
A team of runners then picked up the prescription drugs, which Magarian sold online, used Telegram to communicate with customers, and collected payments through virtual currency and other digital payments, prosecutors said.
Donnelly said Magarian and his crew deviated from that plan to live a lavish lifestyle, buying luxury cars, frequenting steakhouses and strip clubs, and enjoying courtside seats at NBA games. It is said that he was sending
He said Long Island law enforcement officials learned of the scheme last February after a local pharmacist alerted authorities to suspicious prescriptions from an out-of-state doctor.
