Man accused of hacking doctor phones, issuing illegal prescriptions across US
MINEOLA, Long Island (WABC) -- A young Florida man who hacked into doctors' phones, commandeered their prescribing privileges and issued tens of thousands of prescriptions is under arrest in New York, prosecutors announced Friday.
Devin Anthony Magarian, 21, allegedly used those credentials to issue prescriptions for Oxycodone, Promethazine and Codeine throughout the United States.
He is charged in Nassau County with 19 drug charges, including criminal sale of a controlled substance, after a Long Island pharmacist tipped off authorities, law enforcement sources said.
Bobby Bamdad is a pharmacist at Shafa Pharmacy in Great Neck. He said he knows every customer he fills a prescription for, but one script last February didn't seem right.
So he contacted the authorities and alerted nearby pharmacies.
Nassau County officials won't say if he was the one who made the call, but investigators did receive a call from a pharmacist in Great Neck around the same time who had a similar story which launched the year-long investigation.
Officials say the investigation revealed Magarian was leading an elaborate, multi-state conspiracy that fraudulently compromised the e-prescribing credentials of doctors throughout the United States and then used those credentials to issue tens of thousands of prescriptions for narcotics across the country.
As part of the scheme associates of Magarian picked up prescriptions at pharmacies in multiple states. The prescriptions were typically issued in fictitious names and sent to both chain and mom-and-pop pharmacies.
According to court records, Magarian tried to sell an undercover Nassau County Police Department detective oxycodone for $2,250.
Magarian allegedly operated a channel on the Telegram mobile app that served as an advertisement board, letting his customers know when the next round of prescriptions was coming so that they could place their orders.
The defendant allegedly referred to these moments as "portals." Customers messaged Magarian directly to purchase either prescriptions - which the customer would then be responsible for filling themselves - or actual controlled substances, including Oxycodone, and Promethazine and Codeine.
The defendant was arrested by members of the Nassau County Police Department in New York City on Jan. 17 when prosecutors said he was planning to get $14,000 from someone picking up prescriptions for Oxycodone allegedly at the defendant's direction.
The money was compensation for a total of seven prescriptions of Oxycodone 30 mg, each of which contained 90 tablets, for a total of 630 pills, prosecutors said.
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