'Drug Dealers In White Coats' Flooded NY With 8.5M Pills: Feds

NEW YORK, NY – A ring of medical professionals flooded New York with 8.5 million oxycodone pills, knowingly filling fraudulent prescriptions and earning themselves the name "drug dealers in white coats," prosecutors said.

The pills they distributed resulted in many deaths and overdoses, federal prosecutors said.

Of the 10 medical professional charged Thursday, five of them were doctors and eight operated out of New York City.

"These doctors and other health professionals should have been the first line of defense against opioid abuse, but as alleged in today's charges, instead of caring for their patients, they were drug dealers in white coats," said U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Geoffrey Berman.

Dr. Dante Cubangbang, of Franklin Square, operated out of a clinic in Woodside, Queens, and distributed 4.6 million pills over six years, meaning he prescribed more oxycodone in New York state than any other medical professional, prosecutors said.

Nurse John Gargan, office manager Michael Kellerman and Loren Piquant, who is accused of buying pills for resale, were also arrested. They worked at Cubangbang's clinic.

Staten Island doctor Carl Anderson is accused of distributing another 1 million pills since 2006.

"Anderson often saw those purported patients, some of whom displayed visible signs of drug addiction, without appointments, in the middle of the night — sometimes at 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning — and required that they pay hundreds of dollars in cash for each prescription," court papers say.

Also charged were Arthur Grande, who allegedly sold the pills on the streets of New York; Anthony Pietropinto, a psychiatrist living in Manhattan, and Nkanga Nkanga, a Staten Island physician.

A pharmacist and a physician from Westchester were also charged with illegally distributing oxycodone.

To see all charges and allegations, go here.

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