Man Sentenced to 22 Years for Leading Drug Ring

A Union City man was sentenced to 22 years in state prison after pleading guilty to leading a narcotics trafficking network that reached from North Jersey to Toms River.

Louis Lisi, 36, of Union City, pleaded guilty to the first-degree charge and will serve 22 years in state prison, including 9 years of parole ineligibility, according to Acting Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Chillemi.

Superior Court Judge Paul M. DePascale in Hudson County also sentenced Dr. Clifton Howell, 54, of West Orange, to three years in state prison for his role in the drug ring: health care claims fraud.

In July, the two North Jersey men plead guilty in state court to their part in a multi-county Oxycodone drug ring that included distribution in Toms River and Keyport.

The state attorney general’s office charged that the two men were the ringleader and lead doctor that stretched to Hudson, Bergen, Monmouth and Ocean counties, supplying the black market with illegal prescription drugs Percocet and Oxycodone.

Lisi pleaded guilty to a first-degree charge of leader of a narcotics trafficking network before Superior Court Judge Kevin G. Callahan in Hudson County. Howell pleaded guilty today to second-degree health care claims fraud.

Howell and Lisi must pay a total of $128,081 in restitution.  Howell also must pay a $101,281 civil penalty.  Howell will be debarred from the Medicaid program for five years. 

The state indictment describes three North Jersey men as key figures in the ring: Dr. Clifton Howell of West Orange, Pharmacist Amir Tadros of Jersey City, and Lisi as the ringleader. Thirty other individuals were part of the conspiracy the state attorney general’s office is calling “Operation MedScam.”

The indictment refers to incidents in Toms River, as well as Keyport, without going into further detail on where in town or when specifically between April 2008 and Feb. 2010 the activity occurred.

Most of the charges stem from alleged activity in North Jersey pharmacies, but describe an enterprise where leaders managed dozens of subordinate members in the transportation and distribution of prescription narcotics, including Oxycodone and Percocet, across New Jersey, said the attorney general's office.

Tadros, pharmacist in charge at Five Corners Pharmacy, was sentenced previous by Judge Callahan to five years of probation. He pleaded guilty on May 24 to third-degree health care claims fraud.  As a result, Tadros will be debarred from the Medicaid program for five years and pay $55,586 in restitution and an additional civil penalty in the same amount.