MANHATTAN - An Upper West Side doctor and his wife netted at least $2.8 million writing tens of thousands of phony scripts for oxycodone and selling the addictive painkiller to the city's drug rings, the city's Special Narcotics Prosecutor said Tuesday.
Investigators working with a confidential informant recorded Dr. Regelio Lucas and his wife Lydia Lucas six times in audio and video operating the "pill mill," according to drug prosecutor Bridget Brennan.
Police cuffed Doctor Rogelio Lucas, 77, and his wife Lydia Lucas, 79, who they say helped collect cash from the drug sales, at their home on West 95th Street at 8:45 a.m., prosecutors said.
Dating back to 2009, Lucas wrote 23,600 oxycodone prescriptions for about 3.1 million pills, prosecutors said - about 50 prescriptions a day.
About 76 percent of all prescriptions written by Lucas after 2009 were for the painkiller, prosecutors said.
Investigators searched the couple’s apartment and second home in Scarsdale and confiscated $600,000 in cash. The doctor and his wife deposited $500,000 in cash to several different bank accounts between June 2013 and July 2014, prosecutors said.
Lucas has held a license as an internist since 1972 and operated a family practice in different locations on the Upper West Side for a number of years, prosecutors said. The practice used to cater to elderly patients on Medicaid, but underwent a radical change starting early in 2009.
Crowds would gather in the waiting room, sparking neighborhood complaints, prosecutors said. Lucas relocated several times before landing at his current office, 215 West 101st Street.
Investigators suspect Lucas and his wife supplied oxycodone to multiple drug rings across the city and catered to a web of “recruiters” and “runners,” prosecutors said.
The doctor's wife managed the finances for the drug operation, prosecutors said.
The couple face conspiracy charges and 37 counts of criminal sale of a prescription of a controlled substance, prosecutors said.
The couple was arraigned Tuesday afternoon and held on half a million dollars bond.
Verena Powell, the lawyer representing Lydia Lucas defended her client and said that the arrest was a "shock to her system."
Liam Malanaphy who is representing Dr. Lucas could not be reached for comment after the arraignment.
