Two Armed Robbers Exiled to More Than 11 Years in Prison for Stealing Prescription Drugs and Cash from a Woodbine Pharmacy
Tied Up the Pharmacist and Store Clerk and Took the Pharmacist’s Car
| U.S. Attorney’s Office March 28, 2014 |
BALTIMORE—U.S. District Ellen L. Hollander sentenced Anthony Sering and Anthony Alascio, both age 28, of Anne Arundel County, today each to 135 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for conspiring to commit robbery. Judge Hollander also entered an order that the defendants pay $4,095 in restitution.
The sentence was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; Special Agent in Charge Stephen E. Vogt of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; Howard County Police Chief William McMahon; and Howard County State’s Attorney Dario Broccolino.
According to their plea agreements, on December 28, 2012, the defendants took a car from a relative of Alascio without permission and drove to a neighborhood near a pharmacy in Woodbine, Maryland. They parked the car in front of the garage of a residence. The owner of the residence became suspicious and called police.
The defendants left the car and walked to the pharmacy, wearing disguises. One of the defendants pointed a gun at the pharmacist and demanded prescription drugs and cash. The other defendant restrained the store clerk with plastic zip ties around her hands and ankles and ordered her to lie face down on the bathroom floor. After the defendants took a total of $7,287.52 in drugs and cash, they used duct tape to restrain the pharmacist’s wrists and ankles and placed her face down on the floor next to the clerk. The defendants left, taking the pharmacist’s car. They drove back to the car they had parked in front of the residence. The resident, who was standing at a window inside his home, saw Alascio. Alascio spoke to the resident. The defendants loaded the drugs and cash into the parked car and sped off.
A police officer arrived at the residence and saw the defendants drive away at a high rate of speed. The officer pursued them. The defendants led police on an eight-mile chase that sometimes exceeded 100 miles per hour, until Sering crashed the car into another vehicle at the intersection of Route 70 and Route 32 in Howard County. The defendants were arrested, and the stolen drugs and cash were seized. The resident who had called the police was driven to the scene and identified Alascio as the person who had parked in front of his house and who spoke to him.
The defendants were initially detained in the Howard County Detention Center. They were overheard during phone calls admitting to the robbery.
United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein commended the FBI, Howard County Police Department, and Howard County State’s Attorney’s Office for their work in the investigation. Mr. Rosenstein thanked Assistant United States Attorney A. David Copperthite, who prosecuted the case.