Burlington County Pharmacist Sentenced To 15 Years For Illegally Distributing Opioids From “pill Mills”
CAMDEN, N.J. - Valerie A. Nickerson, Special Agent-in-Charge of the DEA New Jersey Division, and Craig Carpenito, U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey, announced a Medford, New Jersey, pharmacist was sentenced today to 180 months in prison for illegally distributing and dispensing oxycodone from two pharmacies located in Medford.
Michael Ludwikowski, 46, the owner of Olde Medford Pharmacy and Medford Family Pharmacy, was previously convicted of six counts in an indictment charging him with illegally distributing and dispensing oxycodone, a Schedule II controlled substance, and maintaining a drug-involved premises. He was sentenced today in Camden federal court.
Ludwikowski, the pharmacist-in-charge of Olde Medford Pharmacy, and his employee, David M. Goldfield, 60, of Medford Lakes, New Jersey, knowingly distributed and dispensed oxycodone and other controlled substances to individuals, including addicts, who presented phony prescriptions. This occurred from March 2008 through August 2013.
In some instances, the customers presented fraudulent prescriptions for a non-narcotic substance that had been “washed,” or “bleached,” through a chemical process that removed the original writing. The customers then rewrote the prescriptions for their drug of choice, oxycodone. Ludwikowski and Goldfield also ignored concerns raised by an employee who pointed out an obviously altered prescription.
Customers who used the fraudulent prescriptions generally paid in cash and provided gifts to Ludwikowski and Goldfield. In furtherance of the scheme, Ludwikowski and another pharmacist he employed reached an agreement with a physician to “steer” patients to Ludwikowski’s pharmacies. In addition to the prison term, Judge Simandle sentenced Ludwikowski to five years of supervised released, 1,000 hours of community service and ordered him to pay a fine of $12,000.
U.S. Attorney Carpenito credited diversion investigators of the DEA’s Camden Resident Office, under the direction of Special Agent-in-Charge Valerie A. Nickerson; the FBI’s Newark Field Office, under the direction of Acting Special Agent in Charge Bradley W. Cohen; the Medford Police Department under the direction of Chief Richard J. Meder; the Moorestown Police Department under the direction of Chief Lee R. Lieber; the Florence Police Department under the direction of Chief John Bunce; and the Lumberton Police Department under the direction of Chief Tony Diloreto, with the investigation leading to today’s sentencing.
