By JOSEPH KELLARD AND JEFF LIPTON
-- including a 74-year-old Bellmore pharmacist who has raked in about $7.5 million since 2000.
The alleged ringleader, identified as Sheldon Howard Topchik of Bellmore, a pharmacist for 50 years, was charged with first-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance. He faces a maximum of 20 years in prison if convicted, officials said.
Following Topchik's arraignment on March 21, during which he pleaded not guilty to the charge, Nassau County District Court Judge Andrea Phoenix held him on $800,000 bond or $400,000 cash bail.
Topchik operated the ring out of his business, Terrace Pharmacy, at 242 Merrick Road, before he and his wife Linda sold it to CVS in April 2006, officials said, adding that the Topchiks continued to work in the store together.
Most of the other 27 suspects were charged with second-degree forgery and criminal possession of a forged instrument.
Detectives at the 4th Squad got the investigation rolling after probing a series of burglaries and a robbery at the pharmacy in late 2005 and noticing the large quantity of the powerful prescription painkiller Vicodin that was sold there, authorities said. Terrace Pharmacy sold nearly three times as much Vicodin as the average pharmacy in New York state in 2005 and almost twice as much as the national average, Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice said during a press conference announcing the arrests on March 21. Terrace sold 149,300 dosage units, while the state average was 53,777 per pharmacy and the national average was 84,332, Rice said.
According to Rice, many of the suspects who were arrested went to Terrace Pharmacy with bogus prescriptions for Vicodin, and Topchik filled them in exchange for cash. Rice said they knew that if they went to the pharmacy, regardless of the prescription they submitted -- some of which were filled out in crayon, while others were photocopied -- they would get the drug. News of Terrace¹s lenient policy spread through word of mouth, she added.
Investigators said they believe Topchik had made about $7.5 million in illegal profits selling Vicodin since 2000, the earliest date found on the thousands of bogus prescriptions. Pointing out that Topchik was getting $4 per pill, Rice said, "He is no better than the drug dealer on the street."
The D.A. said that some of the men and women arrested were addicts, while others peddled the drugs on the streets of Howard Beach, Queens. Many of the suspects were arrested in Howard Beach and Ozone Park.
The Nassau County Police Department's deputy chief of detectives, Richard McGuire, said that the investigation began after a series of burglaries and a robbery at Terrace Pharmacy between October and December 2005. On Oct. 19, the rear metal door of the shop was pried open, an alarm and phone wires were cut and assorted medications were stolen, police said. A similar break-in occurred at the pharmacy a little over a week later, according to police reports.
On Nov. 10, someone noticed that the rear door of the pharmacy was damaged after a burglar attempted to pry it open, police reports stated. Then, on Dec. 19, the rear metal door was pried open once again and assorted prescription drugs were stolen, officials said.
On Nov. 25, in between those burglaries, two robbers entered the pharmacy, pushed Topchik to the back of the store and took an unknown amount of cash from him and from the register. According to police, the robbers also swiped an unknown amount of medications before fleeing. There were no injuries reported.
McGuire said that Detective John Clinton of the 4th Squad investigated the burglaries, and found that Terrace Pharmacy was stockpiling a large quantity of controlled substances. "As a result of his investigation of the burglaries, this prescription fraud case was uncovered," McGuire said.
"Detective Clinton was able to ascertain a commonality in the burglaries and establish a motive, that through reviewing prescription refills, that there was a large amount of Vicodin and Oxycodone being distributed out of this pharmacy," McGuire told the Herald.
Rice said her office would aggressively pursue and prosecute anyone involved in the prescription drug underground, whether they be doctors, pharmacists or addicts, because they are "killing our children and destroying our streets."
Asked if there were any indications that doctors were writing phony prescriptions for these individuals, Rice said the investigation could reach into other areas that could reveal something much more extensive. "What we are seeing here is the beginning of the prescription drug epidemic," she said.
Bob Mangimele of the Long Island Drug Enforcement Agency said, "Prescription drug abuse has become a crisis practically overnight. Painkillers now cause more overdose deaths than cocaine and heroin combined."
Rice said she does not think the epidemic has grabbed the public's attention as it should. "People are so quick to talk about the traditional drugs, cocaine and heroin and marijuana, when right in most [medicine] cabinets everywhere across this country are drugs like Vicodin that are killing our children," she said.
Topchik had been in trouble with state agencies twice before. In 1997 his license was suspended for various violations, and in 2004 his license was suspended for two years and he was placed on probation, officials said.
The Nassau County district attorney's office collaborated with the Long Island DEA and the Narcotics and the Nassau County Police Department¹s Vice Bureau in investigating the case.
Comments about this story? JKellard@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 287.
