United States Drug Enforcement Administration

TRENTON, N.J. - Carl J. Kotowski, Special Agent in Charge of the New Jersey Division of the Drug Enforcement (DEA) and Paul J. Fishman, the United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey, announced that Randy Binder, a pharmacist and the former proprietor of Texas Road Pharmacy in Manalapan, N.J., admitted today that he conspired to illegally distribute oxycodone to people without a legitimate need for the drug.
 
Binder, 60, of Matawan, N.J., pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Freda L. Wolfson in Trenton federal court to an information charging him with conspiracy to distribute oxycodone.

According to documents filed in the case and statements made in court:

Binder admitted that he participated in a conspiracy to distribute oxycodone for no legitimate medical purpose and beyond the bounds of medical practice between January 2009 and June 2012.
 
Oxycodone, the active ingredient in brand name pills such as OxyContin, Roxicodone and Percocet, is a Schedule II controlled substance - meaning that it has a high potential for abuse. Demand for oxycodone-based prescription pain medication has grown to epidemic proportions in the United States, and dealers profit by selling such medication on the street. Users will often crush and snort the pills or dissolve and inject them to get an immediate high. This abuse can lead to addiction, overdose and death.
 
Binder would meet fellow conspirators in the parking lot of Texas Road Pharmacy to provide them with pills, or would leave the pills in a car in the parking lot, which conspirators would then pick up. Binder would also accept prescriptions which he knew to be invalid.

The charge to which Binder pleaded guilty carries a maximum potential penalty of 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine. Sentencing is currently scheduled for Oct. 24, 2013.
 
U.S. Attorney Fishman credited special agents of the DEA, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Carl J. Kotowski; the FBI, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Aaron T. Ford; and IRS-Criminal Investigation, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Shantelle P. Kitchen for the investigation leading to today’s guilty plea.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys R. Joseph Gribko and Jonathan Romankow of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Criminal Division and Tino Lisella, Trial Attorney with the Department of Justice, Tax Division.