CORONA — An unlicensed doctor handed out drugs and performed medical procedures — taking cash for controlled substances and injecting patients with liquids — for years out of his makeshift officer, according to the Queens District Attorney.
Gabriel Estrada, 59, posed as a doctor from his office at 102-15A Northern Blvd. since at least 2000, according to the criminal complaint.
He allegedly examined patients in a space that looked like a doctor’s office — complete with stethoscope and table — and charged for medical visits and prescriptions, according to the undercover officer who helped bust the phony doctor.
During each visit between 2013 and 2015, Estrada conducted a brief examination and tried injecting the officer with an unknown liquid, according to the complaint.
When the officer refused the doctor handed over a prescription on a Post-It note — and said it could be exchanged at a nearby pharmacy for muscle relaxants and anti-inflammatory drugs for between $74 and $106, the complaint says.
During one visit, the undercover officer also watched a woman get an unidentified liquid injected into her butt.
“[Estrada's] alleged conduct jeopardized the safety of patients by allowing an unlicensed individual to treat them – including injecting them with an unknown substance,” Queens DA Richard Brown said in a statement.
Estrada was arrested Tuesday at his office, where police officers recovered a used hypodermic syringe, a container with nine oxycodone pills and an array of injectable drugs and pills, the complaint says.
After officers arrived he allegedly asked them if one of his patients had died — and said he became a licensed doctor in Colombia in 1991 but had failed to gain his license in the United States despite attempting to in 1999 and 2000.
Since then, he’d seen 20 to 30 patients a week, he told police.
He was arraigned late Tuesday and charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance, unauthorized practice of a profession and criminal possession of a hypodermic instrument.
He was held on $7,500 cash bail and was ordered to surrender his Colombian passport, since he's a Colombian national, officials said.
Estrada faces up to nine years if convicted, the DA’s office said.
His lawyer, provided through Legal Aid, could not be reached for comment.
