By Danny Fenster
ticklethewire.com
A Manhattan doctor has been supplying street gangs with the powerful painkiller Oxycodone for street sale, authorities say.
Dr. Felix Rodriguez was arrested when DEA agents and deputy U.S. Marshals raided his offices Wednesday morning , reports NBC New York.
The internal medicine doctor wrote hundreds of prescriptions for gang members who allegedly sold the pills-nearly 50,000 of them-for as much as $30 a a piece the street, the station reported.
Rodriguez had been questioned by agents in February. He had told DEA agents that he was addicted to the painkillers and had been writing the prescriptions for patients, who would then return them to him for free medical care.
“Today’s arrests place a doctor whose oath was to keep people healthy, and his drug distribution organization behind bars,” Wilbert L. Plummer, DEA Acting Special Agent in Charge of the N.Y. Office said in a statement.
“Dr. Felix Rodriguez hid behind his white jacket while overseeing and facilitating an oxycodone distribution ring based in the Bronx, New York. The abuse of diverted prescription pain medication is the fastest growing drug problem in our country…”
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