United States Drug Enforcement Administration

NEW YORK – United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York Geoffrey S. Berman and DEA New York Division Special Agent in Charge Ray Donovan announced that Vito Gallicchio, 50, a Staten Island resident, was sentenced yesterday to 144 months in prison for conspiring to distribute oxycodone. Gallicchio was also ordered to forfeit $2,190,840 in drug proceeds he obtained during the period of the conspiracy. Gallicchio pled guilty in Manhattan federal court on Oct. 18, 2018, before United States District Judge Andrew L. Carter, who imposed Gallicchio’s sentence.    

“Vito Gallicchio sold hundreds of thousands of oxycodone pills on the streets of New York, and masterminded a ring of purported ‘patients’ who faked injuries to get pills,” said U.S. Attorney Berman. “As Gallicchio’s sentence makes clear, those who fuel the opioid epidemic face prosecution and stiff sentences.”

According to allegations in the indictment and other documents filed in federal court, as well as statements made in public court proceedings:

Oxycodone is a highly addictive, narcotic opioid that is used to treat severe and chronic pain conditions. Oxycodone prescriptions are in high demand and have significant cash value to drug dealers. In fact, oxycodone tablets can be resold on the street for thousands of dollars. For example, 30-milligram oxycodone tablets have a current street value of approximately $30 per tablet in New York City, with street prices even higher in other parts of the country. 

From at least approximately January 2012 until his arrest in 2017, Gallicchio obtained medically unnecessary oxycodone prescriptions from Dr. David Taylor, who operated a medical clinic in Staten Island, N.Y., and was subsequently convicted of conspiring to distribute oxycodone. Gallicchio traded cash and other gifts, such as liquor, in exchange for Dr. Taylor writing prescriptions for Gallicchio and his crew. During approximately the same period, Gallicchio filled the medically unnecessary prescriptions at a Staten Island pharmacy, and also purchased wholesale quantities of oxycodone from the pharmacist without prescriptions. Gallicchio subsequently sold the oxycodone pills for millions of dollars in profit, which he used to make significant renovations on his home and purchase several expensive cars, including, a Corvette, a Lincoln Navigator, a Lincoln LS, a Jeep Grand Cherokee and a Bentley. 

At the sentencing proceeding, Judge Carter found Gallicchio was responsible for distributing more than 180,000 30-milligram oxycodone pills and that he obstructed justice by seeking to intimidate at least two government witnesses.    

Gallicchio’s co-defendant, David Taylor, is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 16, 2020.  

Mr. Berman praised the investigative work of the DEA Tactical Diversion Squad in New York, which comprises agents and officers from the DEA, the New York City Police Department, New York State Department of Financial Services, New York National Guard and New York City Department of Investigation and New York State Department of Health Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement. 

The case is being prosecuted by the Office’s Narcotics Unit. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kiersten A. Fletcher, Justin Rodriguez, and Nicolas Roos are in charge of the prosecution. 

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