A Brooklyn, N.Y., man has admitted his involvement in a plot to burglarize a pharmacy in Marlboro and to sell stolen narcotics for cash, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.
On Aug. 22, David Mordukhaev, 22, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Freda L. Wolfson in Trenton federal court to an information charging him with one count of conspiracy to distribute oxycodone and possess oxycodone with intent to distribute.
According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:
The Union Hill-Supremo Pharmacy on Union Hill Road at Route 9 north in Marlboro was burglarized shortly after 4 a.m. on June 17, 2012. Mordukhaev and his fellow conspirators filled 17 garbage bags and two cardboard boxes with merchandise from the pharmacy, including approximately 1,988 dosage units of methylphenidate, 500 dosage units of hydromorphone, 300 dosage units of Opana (a trade name for oxymorphone) and 3,800 dosage units of oxycodone — all Schedule II controlled substances.
The stock lost by the pharmacy was valued at $350,000. Mordukhaev admitted he stole the drugs knowing they would be sold for profit.
The conspiracy to distribute oxycodone charge to which Mordukhaev pleaded guilty carries a maximum potential penalty of 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine. Sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 3.
Mordukhaev’s co-conspirator, James Zarbailov, previously pleaded guilty before Wolfson on May 9 to conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute oxycodone. Zarbailov is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 3.
Fishman credited special agents of the FBI’s Red Bank Resident Agency, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Aaron T. Ford in Newark, and law enforcement officers from the Marlboro Police Department, under the direction of Police Chief Bruce E. Hall, for the investigation leading to Mordukhaev’s guilty plea.