Nassau Man Forged Opioid Prescriptions For Himself: DA

VALLEY STREAM, NY — A Nassau County man was arrested on Friday for illegally using a doctor's prescription pad to get thousands of morphine and oxycodone pills over a period of months, according to the Nassau County District Attorney.

James Cosentino, 27, of Valley Stream, was charged with two counts of third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance and 10 counts of second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument. He is due back in court on Nov. 20. if convicted of the top charge, he could face up to nine years in prison.

“The defendant allegedly used forged prescriptions to acquire more than 13,000 opioid pills in just nine months,” said District Attorney Madeline Singas. “The opioid epidemic is impacting every corner of the United States and the crisis has only grown more acute during the coronavirus public health emergency. This investigation into this defendant is ongoing and I thank our partners at the DEA for their assistance.”

According to Singas, Cosentino got the prescription pad from a former doctor. From December 2019 to September 2020, Singas said that Cosentino went to a Nassau pharmacy multiple times and presented forged prescriptions for oxycodone and morphine for himself. On at least one occasion, Singas said that Cosentino called the pharmacy claiming to be the doctor.

Singas said that, over the course of the nine-month scam, Cosentino acquired 11,580 oxycodone pills and 2,820 morphine pills.

Cosentino surrendered himself to detective investigators ad the DA's office on Friday.

“This is a great example of medical practitioners helping law enforcement stop the diversion of prescription pain medication," said DEA Special Agent-in-Charge Ray Donovan. "By alerting us of the forged prescriptions, we were able to fully investigate and stop the defendant in his tracks, hopefully saving himself and others in the process.”