Ice Cream Truck Used for Peddling Prescription Pills

Over 30 people were charged in New York for peddling prescription drugs in the guise of an ice cream van and pocketing over $1 million in the process. The prosecutors claimed that Louis Scala, 40, sold Oxycodone pills as he operated his Lickety Split ice cream truck and dropped the pill on pre-arranged points. Scala is accused of selling over 40,000 Oxycodone pills, a powerful painkiller, during the 12 month period between July 2009 and June 2010.

Scala is alleged to have bought the pills from Nancy Wilkins who was working for a Manhattan doctor as an office manager. Wilkins is reported to have sold prescription pages for $100 apiece to Scala and his associate Joseph Zaffuto.

The prescriptions were then filled up and the pill acquired by runners who were either paid in cash or given some of the pills. Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget Brennan said that some of the runners were also addicted to the pills.

“This narcotics organization was as predatory as any I have ever seen, in its structure and distribution practices. Most of the individuals recruited to fill bogus prescriptions were among society's most vulnerable, young, financially desperate and addicted to oxycodone”, Brennan said.


Source-Medindia