Elderly Couple Accused Of Owning The Opiate Game In NYC, Moving 3 Million Oxy Pills

DEA

The streets is a young man’s game, so it’s nice to see old folks getting in the mix.

In New York City, where there’s always some kid gunning for your spot, apparently the entire town’s flow of opiates was controlled by a 77-year-old doctor and his 77-year-old-wife.

That is, until they were popped by the DEA this week.

But before that? Dr. Rogelio and Lydia Lucas were fucking kingpins. From The New York Post:

Dr. Rogelio Lucas, 77, and his office-manager wife, Lydia, 79, allegedly made millions by peddling so many crooked prescriptions that the overflow crowds in their waiting room forced them to relocate three times.

He allegedly worked with several major drug rings to write more than 23,600 prescriptions for 3 million-plus tablets of the highly addictive painkiller oxycodone worth more than $77 million on the streets.

All that cash in the picture up there? Theirs. Well, the feds, now.

The ring the couple is accused of running was pretty straightforward. From USA Today:

Prosecutors say that Lucas didn’t just prescribe to anyone who came to the clinic, however. The doctor allegedly refused to take first-time appointments with patients who hadn’t been referred by members of drug rings around the city.

Once there, prosecutors allege, Lucas’s wife took $120 cash payments from so-called patients, who would allegedly receive prescriptions for the narcotic after a rudimentary examination.

Once a patient was approved, they would wait for more than an hour before an examination where Lucas didn’t ask about their injuries, medical history or pain, prosecutors say. Afterward, Lucas allegedly wrote prescriptions for oxycodone, which would then be filled at local pharmacies.

If only I’d known about this shit. I’ve always found it impossible to find opiates in New York City. And now it’s gonna be even harder. Fuck.

The couple was charged with 37 counts of criminal sale of a prescription for a controlled substance.

[H/T Gawker]