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TagsState Criminal Justice Director Deborah L. Gramiccioni said the trio had previously pleaded guilty to racketeering charges filed as a result of Operation Pandora, an investigation led by the State Police, the Division of Criminal Justice, and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
The investigation led to the arrest in January 2007 of the leader of the ring, Mohamed Hassanain, 43, of West Orange, and 19 other members. Eighteen have pleaded guilty. Hassanain pleaded guilty on July 31, while on trial, to racketeering and money laundering.
Gramiccioni said the state will recommend that Hassanain be sentenced to 18 years in prison.Edwin Polanco, 30, of New York City, was sentenced to 12 years in prison Monday by state Superior Court Judge Michael J. Nelson in Newark. In pleading guilty to racketeering in May, Polanco admitted that he served as a conduit between Hassanain's ring and a Bronx ring that Hassanain's ring supplied.
Nelson also sentenced two men who served as runners, filling fraudulent prescriptions at pharmacies and delivering narcotics to members of the ring. Woodrow Newton, 48, of Newark was sentenced to 12 years and Rick Terrell, 59, of Newark, to five years.
Hassanian was indicted on Aug. 2, 2007 along with 18 other defendants. Prior to the indictment, Dr. Mario Comesanas, 53, a Livingston physician, pleaded guilty to racketeering and distribution of narcotics for writing thousands of fraudulent prescriptions for the ring. He is awaiting sentencing and faces up to 15 years in prison. He forfeited $593,000 seized in his home and permanently forfeited his state medical license.
In pleading guilty, Hassanain admitted that between July 2005 and January 2007, he directed a narcotics ring that sold approximately 40,000 OxyContin and Percocet pills per week. Most of the pills went to the distribution ring based in The Bronx. The Bronx ring in turn sold some of the drugs to a ring in the Boston area.
Hassanain's cousin, pharmacist Ahmed F. "Felix" Aly, 33, of Union, is charged with knowingly filling the forged prescriptions at his pharmacy, RGN Pharmacy on Elizabeth Avenue in Newark. The charges against Aly are pending. Prescriptions were also filled at other pharmacies. Hassanain allegedly ran the ring from his business, Lyons Avenue Auto Sales on Clinton Avenue in Newark, as well as his home.
Thirteen other defendants who pleaded guilty to racketeering are awaiting sentencing.
The case is being prosecuted by Supervising Deputy Attorney General Mark Eliades, chief of the Gangs & Organized Crime Bureau, and Deputy Attorneys General Mark Ondris and Paul Salvatoriello.
Attorney General Anne Milgram credited, among others, Det. Thomas McEnroe and others within the State Police Major Crime Unit and detectives in the Gangs & Organized Crime Bureau North Squad. She also credited the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's New Jersey Division, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Gerard P. McAleer.
– TOM HESTER SR., NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM