Raju conspired with a doctor, say authorities.
AB Wire
A New Jersey pharmacist, Srinivasa Raju, has been convicted of conspiring with a doctor to illegally distribute highly addictive painkillers, authorities said.
Raju, 44, was found guilty Thursday of third-degree counts of conspiracy and distribution of a controlled dangerous substance after a three-week trial at Superior Court in Morris County, according to the state Attorney General’s Office, reported NJ Advance Media.
Authorities say Raju, who worked at Bottle Hill Pharmacy in Madison, provided oxycodone to cash-paying customers who didn’t have prescriptions. He would then ask Vincent A. Esposito, a doctor and former Madison councilman, to write phony prescriptions to hide the illegal sales.
According to the Attorney General’s Office, Raju sold the painkillers to a drug dealer working as an informant for the federal DEA on three occasions without prescriptions.
Raju’s attorney, J. Michael Farrell, told NJ Advance Media his client had no criminal record and was entrapped by federal agents into breaking the law.
“The patient-turned-informant here was a very talented conman,” he said. “He turned his need for pain medication into a business, unbeknownst to my client and unbeknownst to his physician.”
Acting Attorney General Robert Lougy said in a statement Friday that Raju “willfully participated in the illegal diversion of oxycodone, which is a primary driver in the epidemic of opiate abuse plaguing New Jersey and the U.S.”
Esposito, 58, pleaded guilty in 2013 to second-degree conspiracy to distribute oxycodone. Raju is scheduled for sentencing on July 7 and faces five years in state prison and a fine of up to $15,000.
Farrell said he and his client were still weighing whether to appeal. He claimed Raju was a victim of the government’s war on drugs.
“This is a very difficult situation for both physicians and pharmacists, who find themselves having to make a decision between their vow to alleviate pain and help their patients and protecting themselves from patients who may target them,” he said.
Elie Honig, the director of the state Division of Criminal Justice, said authorities are “redoubling our efforts to prosecute the pharmacists, doctors and drug dealers who run the black market for these dangerously addictive pills.”