United States Drug Enforcement Administration

BUFFALO, NY - . - Special Agent in Charge of the New York Field Division United States Drug Enforcement Administration John P. Gilbride and U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul, Jr. announced late yesterday that Lindsay Lang, 18, of Orchard Park, N.Y., and Daniel Smythe, 21, of Cheektowaga, N.Y., pleaded guilty to conspiring to sell OxyContin pills. The charge carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, a $1,000,000 fine or both.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael L. McCabe, who is handling the case, stated that the defendants were arrested in July 2010 along with 31 others, following a long-term investigation into the widespread illegal sale of prescription drugs in the City of Buffalo, Cheektowaga and other neighboring towns. To date, seven of the defendants have been convicted.

Lang and Smythe both admitted that they had purchased and sold OxyContin pills and that Justin Doyle, one of the 33 defendants, was involved with them. Doyle worked as an attendant at a William Street gas station in Cheektowaga and is accused of actively selling pills while at work to a broad network of other distributors in Cheektowaga and neighboring towns.

The fact that a defendant has been charged with a crime is merely an accusation and the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.

The pleas are the culmination of an investigation on the part of Special Agents of the Drug Enforcement Administration, under the direction of Special Agent-in-Charge John P. Gilbride, in conjunction with many state and local authorities such as the New York State Police, the Buffalo Police Department, the Cheektowaga Police Department, the West Seneca Police Department, the Lancaster Police Department, the Amherst Police Department and the Lockport Police Department.

Sentencing is scheduled for April 19, 2011 at 9:00 a.m. before Judge Skretny.