A scammer hacked into doctors’ electronic prescribing accounts, wrote tens of thousands of bogus orders for addictive drugs, then had runners pick them up from pharmacies in multiple states so they could be illegally resold online, prosecutors on Long Island announced Friday.
The man prosecutors said led the sophisticated drug ring, Devin Anthony Magarian, 21, of Kissimmee, Florida, pleaded not guilty during a court appearance in Mineola and was ordered temporarily detained.
Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly described the scheme as the modern-day equivalent of stealing a doctor’s prescription pad.
She said it exposed vulnerabilities in the e-prescription system used by doctors and other prescribers to electronically send prescriptions directly to pharmacies.
“The defendant found ways to exploit the system,” Donnelly said in her office in the Mineola courthouse on Friday. “It’s a reminder that drug dealers have become cyber criminals.”
Magarian faces 19 criminal charges, including illegally selling a controlled substance and illegally diverting prescription medications.