LI Gang Member Planned Selling Fake Percocet Pills With Fentanyl: Feds

RONKONKOMA, NY — A 21-year-old street gang member is in federal custody Thursday after authorities say he had plans to sell a stash of over 500 fake Percocet pills laced with about 56 grams of fentanyl in Suffolk County.

Fernando "Pablo" Cooper planned to sell pills made to look like Percocet, as well as 30-milligram oxycodone pills, between December 2021 and July 2022, federal prosecutors say.

Cooper in July sold about 223 fake opioid pills, containing about 28 grams of oxycodone, to a person in Bohemia, and then days after that sale, he was found in possession of 119 counterfeit opioid pills with around 14 grams of fentanyl, which were recovered after he fled from the police following a traffic stop and hid in a Central Islip backyard, according to federal prosecutors.

The execution of a search warrant on cellphones seized from Cooper found he was a member of the Hit Squad street gang and that he worked with other people to sell fentanyl inside fake or pressed opioid pills in Suffolk, federal prosecutors said.

United States Attorney Breon Peace announced the unsealing of a federal indictment against Cooper on Thursday.

Cooper "manipulatively sold and marketed" the fake pills "laced with fentanyl, a dangerous narcotic that is responsible for many deaths.”

“Opioid addiction and fatal drug overdoses remain a significant threat to our communities and this office is working closely with our law enforcement partners to protect the public by prosecuting fentanyl traffickers who callously conceal that deadly drug in counterfeit pills that could easily kill unsuspecting users,” he added.

Federal Bureau of Investigation Assistant Director-in-Charge Michael Driscoll said "drug dealers are pushing products with no care for the dangerous substances in them, placing financial gain over human life."

“We allege Cooper sold pills he knew were laced with fentanyl, which is responsible for the spike in overdose deaths here and across the nation," he said. "These dealers will be held accountable for the carnage they are leaving behind.”

Suffolk Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison said that "the illicit sale and distribution of fentanyl has taken countless lives" across the region and that "the unsealing of this indictment should strike fear into the heart of anyone who considers buying opioids in any form on the black market.”

“I am proud of the men and women of the Suffolk County Police Department and our partner agencies for their tireless work in this case," he said. "We will continue to take aggressive action to hold dangerous drug dealers, like this individual who was peddling counterfeit opioid pills, accountable as we work to curb this ongoing scourge in our communities.”

District Attorney Ray Tierney said Cooper "allegedly sold deadly counterfeit opioid pills to unsuspecting users.”

“Thanks to our partnership with all of our law enforcement agencies, this individual is no longer peddling this poison to our residents," he said.

Tierney thanked Peace for "spearheading the prosecution of these important cases.”

Nearly 71,000 people died in 2019 from drug overdoses, making it a leading cause of injury-related death in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The increase in overdose deaths has been driven in a large part by fentanyl, which is a drug that has been described as 50-to-100 times more potent than morphine, according to the Department of Justice.