Alleged $3 Million Oxycodone Ring Had Cherry Hill Ties

A Cherry Hill man has been arrested and charged with running a massive oxycodone ring out of a Philadelphia doctor’s office, federal authorities announced Tuesday.

With the aid of a doctor’s assistant who forged prescriptions for the painkillers, Leon Little, 33, funneled more than 380,000 pills through his operation, according to First Assistant United States Attorney Louis Lappen, and pulled in more than $3 million over two years, between August 2010 and August 2012.

Little, along with Heather Herzstein, 28, of Folcroft, PA, who worked in the doctor’s office, and Colise Harmon, 34, of Philadelphia, recruited and paid people, many from North Philadelphia’s Raymond Rosen Projects, to pose as patients and score prescriptions for 10- and 30-milligram doses of oxycodone, authorities said.

Those fake patients got cash in exchange for the drugs, authorities said, and Little’s organization handled the forged prescriptions, which Hertzstein created without the doctor’s knowledge.

“The defendants charged today are drug dealers just like street dealers pushing heroin and cocaine,” said Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) Special Agent-in-Charge Dongilli. “Each is driven by greed and intent on making as much money as possible at any expense and with a total disregard of others.”

Little used Harmon to steer the prescriptions primarily through three pharmacies in Philadelphia, authorities said, and got Hertzstein to confirm the authenticity of the fake documents.

He’d then store the drugs, repackage them and move them to customers in Philadelphia, authorities said.

Another Cherry Hill resident, Aminah Shabazz, 36, laundered money brought in by Little’s organization, authorities said, moving cash through a credit union in Ridley, PA, over to a consulting company he jointly owned with Little in an attempt to hide the source of the money.

Little, Herzstein and Harmon are charged with distribution of oxycodone, acquiring a controlled substance by fraud, and aiding and abetting, and face the possibility of life in prison if convicted.

Shabazz faces charges of money laundering and aiding and abetting, and could be sentenced to 33 to 41 months in prison if convicted.

23 people who allegedly dealt the oxycodone Little’s organization provided were also arrested and charged, authorities said. Most of them face up to a decade in prison if convicted on various charges.

“Prescription drug abuse has become an epidemic in our society, and with the increased demand for these drugs has come the criminal activity that naturally follows—including illegal drug distribution and violence,” Lappen said. “The individuals charged today with drug trafficking face lengthy prison terms like those imposed on distributors of street level drugs such as heroin and cocaine. We will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to bring illegal drug traffickers to justice and stem the tide of prescription drug abuse in our communities.”