STATEN ISLAND — A doctor was busted for writing millions of dollars worth of illegal oxycodone prescriptions — as the city is deep in the throes of an opioid epidemic, federal prosecutors said.
Dr. David Taylor, 70, was indicted Thursday along with Daniel Garcia, 47, and Vito Gallicchio, 57, for flooding the streets with the illegal pills over a five-year period.
"As the opioid epidemic wreaks havoc on too many of our communities, for years, Dr. David Taylor and his co-conspirators allegedly wrote prescriptions for and distributed medically unnecessary oxycodone," Joon Kim, acting Manhattan U.S. Attorney, said in a statement.
"Doctors should be advancing the health of our citizens, not allegedly fueling the biggest health crisis facing the country, the opioid abuse epidemic."
Taylor worked as a pain management specialist from an Eltingville office from January 2012 to at least June 2017 where he wrote illegal prescriptions for patients who did not need oxycodone, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors did not describe Gallicchio's and Garcia's roles in the scheme.
Gallicchio made headlines last year when he told the Staten Island Advance that somebody broke the rear window of his 2016 Corvette Z06 because of his numerous pro-Trump signs on his lawn.
He also posted several videos on his YouTube of him doing burnouts in the car or driving more than 100 MPH on a Staten Island street.
Taylor was also in the news in 2010 when he gave a prescription to the owner of a St. George hot dog shop who used fake MRI forms to get painkillers.
Contact information for their lawyer was not immediately available.
