Man Gets Seven Years For Oxycodone Forgery In Chesco & Delco Counties

PHILADELPHIA – A 37-year-old Philadelphia man was sentenced Wednesday in U.S. District Court here to seven years in federal prison for filling bogus prescriptions for oxycodone at pharmacies in Delaware and Chester counties.

Marques Russell was one of 12 charged in a federal indictment with participating in a ring that forged prescriptions and resold the oxycodone for illegal sales.

Russell was also ordered by U.S. District Judge C. Darnell Jones II to serve three years of probation following the prison term. He was fined $3,000 and ordered to forfeit $129,600 in proceeds gained from his role in the scheme.

Russell pleaded guilty in May to 31 counts of presenting bogus prescriptions on 31 to pharmacies in Drexel Hill and Kennett Square.

Investigators said from February 2017 through May 2019, Russell obtained 4,320 oxycodone tablets totaling 129,600 milligrams.

U.S. Attorney Jacqueline Romero asked for a sentence of 210 to 262 months. The prosecutor said in a sentencing memorandum that Russell denied getting others to cash the bogus prescriptions.

“Pharmacies and pharmacists have a responsibility to serve as gatekeepers of a closed system of prescription drug distribution,” Romero said in a prepared statement after the sentencing. “This defendant and his co-conspirators took advantage of that system to flood the streets of our region with dangerous opioid drugs, no doubt exacerbating the epidemic."

“Our office will continue to investigate and prosecute healthcare fraud crimes like this in an effort to deter such conduct and keep our communities safe.”

Russell’s lawyer, Lawrence J. Bozzelli, said that Russell was prescribed 120 pills a month for back pain, using four pills a day. He requested a sentence of 57 to 71 months.

The case was investigated by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the Easttown Township Police Department, and was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney David E. Troyer.