Pharmacist Daniel J. Russo of Cedarhurst was 'a drug dealer in a white coat,' federal prosecutors say

A licensed pharmacist from Cedarhurst pleaded guilty to federal drug charges Friday which alleged he conspired to distribute oxycodone and filed false business and personal income tax returns, federal official said.

Daniel J. Russo, 44, faces up to a maximum of 20 years in prison for a number of drug charges, as well as three years in prison for each of the false tax return filings, according to U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District Breone Peace.

“Russo was a drug dealer in a white coat,” said Peace in a statement, alluding to defendant’s role as a pharmacist. “He abused his pharmacy license and the trust place in him by the community to illegally distribute enormous amounts of oxycodone, spread misery in the community and fueling addiction, all to enrich himself.”

 While Russo was peddling oxycodone, an opioid painkiller, he wasn’t paying taxes on the illicit income he received, Peace said.

“Everyone is required to pay their fair share of taxes, whether they make their money legitimately or through criminal activity,” noted acting deputy assistant attorney general Stuart M. Goldberg, who is from the U.S. Justice Department’s tax division, in his own statement.

Russo entered his guilty plea before Brooklyn federal district judge Dora J. Irizarry. Sentencing was set for Aug. 3.

Defense attorney Benjamin Brafman didn’t immediately return a request for comment.

According to court filings and federal officials, Russo owned an operated Russo’s Pharmacy in Far Rockaway, Queens, and from March 2011 and June 2014, conspired with other medical professionals and employees to fraudulently prescribe oxycodone and dispense thousands of oxycodone pills in return for hundred of thousands of dollars in cash.

As stated in court papers and by federal investigators, Russo’s co-conspirators delivered hundreds of fraudulent oxycodone prescriptions to his pharmacy and would then retrieve the filled prescriptions which were written in the names of patients. The filled prescriptions were then dispensed elsewhere, according to officials.

From 2012 through 2016, Russo omitted declaring the illegal proceed on his corporate and personal income tax returns, officials noted. Russo is said to have failed to reports some $1 million in earning, much of which investigators came the oxycodone distribution scheme.

In this statement, Peace noted that the investigation was led by the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Long Island Tactical Diversion Squad, comprised of federal agents and cops from Suffolk and Nassau Counties, the NYPD, as well as local prosecutors in Brooklyn, Queens, Long Island and Staten Island.

By Anthony M. DeStefano

tony.destefano@newsday.com

Anthony M. DeStefano has been a reporter for Newsday since 1986 and covers law enforcement, criminal justice and legal affairs from its New York City offices.