A Bronx accused kingpin kept it all in the family, charged with running a prescription drug trafficking ring with his son, authorities said.
Nelson Quezada Sr., 53, and his son, 24-year-old Riquelvin Quezada, were indicted Wednesday for allegedly filling about $1.5 million in forged oxycodone prescriptions, according to the Special Narcotics Prosecutor’s Office.
The pair were picked up at their Bronx home Wednesday morning and were expected to be arraigned later in the day. They were each charged with several offenses, including fourth-degree conspiracy and 70 counts each of second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument. Quezada Sr. was also charged with operating as a major trafficker.
“This father-son team is charged with flooding the black market with more than a million dollars’ worth of addictive pills, opening the gateway for a flood of new heroin addicts,” Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget G. Brennan said in a statement, calling it an “elaborate scheme.”
From September 2010 to 2014, the father-son pair is accused of employing “runners,” many who were Medicaid patients, to fill the fake prescriptions they wrote up at pharmacies, including several throughout the Bronx. They then bundled a few hundred dollars worth of pills together and resold them on the black market for thousands, according to the Special Narcotics Prosecutor.
Investigators identified 464 forged prescription for a total of more than 51,000 pills.
The father was held on $500,000 bail, and the son was held on $100,000 bail. Both pleaded not guilty.
An attorney for Riquelvin Quezada declined to comment. An attorney for Nelson Quezada Sr. could not immediately be reached for comment.
