LI Crime Briefs

NASSAU COUNTY/Two busted in drug sale

The operators of two Nassau County pharmacies were arrested by federal agents Wednesday on charges of illegally selling up to several hundred oxycodone pills at a time.

The arrests of Pasquale Minuto, 40, of Garden City, and Richard Sutherland, 51, of West Hempstead, also pharmacists, are part of a joint crackdown by the Drug Enforcement Administration and the IRS on the underground sale of the drug, officials said.

Minuto, who operates the Garden City Family Pharmacy, and Sutherland, who operates the Drug Mart in Massapequa, were arraigned in federal court in Central Islip. They were not required to enter a plea.

Minuto and Sutherland were each released on $100,000 bail by Magistrate Kathleen Tomlinson. If convicted, they each face up to 20 years in prison.

-- ROBERT E. KESSLER

SUFFOLK COUNTY/Sex-slave case nears end

A jury in federal court in Central Islip was told to continue deliberating Wednesday after it said it had reached decisions on 31 charges against three men accused of running a sexual-slavery scheme in Suffolk County, but were deadlocked on the five remaining charges.

U.S. District Judge Sandra Feuerstein then read the jurors a version of instructions, known commonly as "a dynamite charge," aimed at getting deadlocked jurors to arrive on decisions on all charges.

The defendants -- Antonio Rivera, 35, of Patchogue, John Whaley, 31, of Bellport, and Jason Villaman, 32, of Brentwood -- are each charged with a number of counts of sexual trafficking, forced labor and immigration violations.

-- ROBERT E. KESSLER