Pharmacy Director Pleads Guilty to Oxycodone Theft

The former director of pharmacy services at Beth Israel Medical Center in Manhattan has pleaded guilty to stealing nearly a quarter million oxycodone pills from the hospital.

The city’s Special Narcotics Prosecutor’s Office announced that Anthony D’Alessandro had already surrendered his license, and he will most likely be sentenced to 5 years in prison, with a 5-year period of supervision after his release.

D’Alessandro stole nearly 200,000 oxycodone pills, which are worth $5.6 million on the street, the Special Narcotics Prosecutor’s Office reported. The theft took place at the hospital on 218 separate occasions between January 2009 and April 2014.

D’Alessandro had worked at Beth Israel for 14 years and was responsible for overseeing the process of stocking and dispensing medication.

Mount Sinai Health System received an anonymous tip with documentation related to the crime. After an audit and further investigation, D’Alessandro was fired in April 2014 and arrested a few months later.

“D’Alessandro covered up his activities by making false entries into the hospital’s electronic narcotics inventory system indicating the medication was being sent to the research pharmacy at the hospital that he himself oversaw,” wrote Bridget G. Brennan, New York City’s special narcotics prosecutor, in a statement. “Because he was in charge of the department, he was able to divert the pills instead of shipping them to their stated destination.”

D’Alessandro has pleaded guity to 4 counts of criminal possession of a controlled substance in the second degree. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for July 23, 2015.