Jacqueline LoPresti, who has an office on Prospect Avenue in Little Silver, is one of two doctors indicted for allegedly writing illegal prescriptions. (Photo by Dustin Racioppi; click to enlarge)
A Little Silver osteopath is among 21 people facing federal drug distribution charges for her alleged role in a massive scheme to peddle the painkiller oxycodone, the Associated Press reports.
Jacqueline LoPresti, 50, who lives in Fair Haven and practices in an office on Prospect Avenue in Little Silver, is one of two doctors arrested Wednesday for “illegally writing more than 6,000 prescriptions for more than 500,000 oxycodone tablets between January 2009 and December 2010,” the AP reports.
U.S. Attorney for New Jersey scheduled a noontime press conference in Newark on the case.
From the AP:
According to the criminal complaint, authorities used several confidential sources inside the alleged drug network as well as an undercover agent who penetrated the operation. Investigators also secretly recorded numerous transactions between LoPresti, Lahham and codefendants they allegedly used as phony patients who would fill the prescriptions at pharmacies.
LoPresti didn’t require the patients to fill out paperwork at her office and accepted payments in cash, according to the complaint. On occasion she allegedly delivered the prescriptions to a codefendant at a rest stop on the Garden State Parkway.
An online database of federal court records indicated the charges were under seal as of noon Wednesday.
