Member of Connecticut-Based Oxycodone Ring Sentenced in Manhattan Federal Court to Three Years and One Day in Prison

PREET BHARARA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that MARCUS ERODICI, a member of an oxycodone trafficking organization based in Bridgeport, Connecticut, was sentenced today in Manhattan federal court to three years and one day in prison. ERODICI pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute oxycodone and one count of distributing oxycodone on March 17, 2011. U.S. District Judge KIMBA M. WOOD imposed today’s sentence.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney PREET BHARARA stated: “Like heroin, Oxycodone is a powerful, highly addictive, and potentially lethal drug. In the proper hands it can play an important role in pain management. But Marcus Erodici exploited the drug’s popularity to turn a profit and pay for his own addiction. He will now be punished for his crimes.”

According to the indictment and other court documents, as well as statements made during proceedings in the case:

From 2006 to 2008, MARCUS ERODICI and his co-defendant RAYMOND CAPOZZIELLO, the organization’s leader, recruited straw buyers, including MICHAEL WALKER and ALEXANDER VANGHELE, to travel from Connecticut to Manhattan to visit a particular pain management doctor (“Physiatrist A”), who wrote prescriptions for hundreds of oxycodone tablets for each straw buyer. The straw buyers then traveled to a particular pharmacist in Manhattan (“Pharmacist A”) who filled these prescriptions in their names. The straw buyers then provided many of the pills that they purchased to ERODICI, CAPOZZIELLO, or another member of the organization, so that the pills could be sold for a profit. CAPOZZIELLO paid the expenses incurred by the straw buyers, including the costs of the visits to Physiatrist A and the money paid to Pharmacist A for the pills. Members of the conspiracy also paid cash to the straw buyers for their services.

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In addition to the prison term, Judge WOOD sentenced ERODICI, 45, of Stratford, Connecticut, to three years of supervised release and ordered him to forfeit $5,000, which represents the proceeds of his crime.

All three of ERODICI’s co-defendants have pled guilty, and two have been sentenced. WALKER and CAPOZZIELLO were sentenced by Judge WOOD to 33 months and 40 months in prison, respectively. VANGHELE’s sentencing is scheduled for October 19, 2011 at 11:00 a.m.

Mr. BHARARA thanked the Federal Bureau of Investigation for its assistance in the case.

This matter is being handled by the Office’s Complex Frauds Unit. Assistant U.S. Attorneys DAVID B. MASSEY and RACHEL KOVNER are in charge of the prosecution.