This mom-and-pop pharmacy was selling more than just greeting cards and junk food — it was the home base for one of the biggest illegal prescription pill rings in New York history, authorities said Thursday.
Marcin Jakacki, 35, and his wife Lilian, 49, owners of Chopin Chemist in Brooklyn, doled out pills to “customers” who often used prescriptions from stolen pads written to obviously fake names like “Chanel” and “Coach.���
The duo also sold to people without prescriptions and pocketed up to $15 million in illegal profits, enough to easily afford a swanky $3 million Connecticut home, according to the Manhattan US Attorney.
“It’s certainly out of the ordinary when a small pharmacy would sell more than a CVS or a Rite-Aid in the same area,” DEA special agent in charge James Hunt said Thursday. A 2013 audit of the Greenpoint pharmacy that revealed it sold 430,000 pills without a prescription.
“When… that much of a discrepancy shows up, it shows how greedy you are,” he said.
An undercover DEA agent bought 700 pills in September and October from the Jakackis, who leased a $100,000 Land Rover and a $45,000 Porsche, prosecutors said in Manhattan federal court.
“During conversations to arrange the purchases, Jackacki referred to the tablets as ‘candies’ and told [the undercover] that he needed certain information because he wanted to verify that [the undercover was not a DEA agent,” court papers state.
“Lilian Jakacki distributed and directed others to illegally distribute hundreds of thousands of oxycodone pills to individuals based often on fraudulent prescriptions,” court papers state.
Authorities also arrested Robert Cybulski, 30, the Jakacki’s biggest buyer, for purchasing at least tens of thousands of the pills from the couple – often 500 at a time. He would pay $2 each for pills that fetched about $30 on the street, prosecutors said.
“The defendants and pharmacies charged today allegedly were part of one the largest opioid painkiller diversion schemes ever uncovered in New York,” Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara said.
The Jackackis were each held on $1 million bonds while Cybulski was released on a $100,000 bond.
Lilian could get up to 85 years and her husband could be behind bars for a maximum of 60 years – while Cybulski faces up to 20 years, prosecutors said.
Federal agents in plainclothes closed the Greenpoint pharmacy.
A UPS deliveryman who came to the store said he assumed he had been unknowingly dropping off pills in his past deliveries.
“I deliver boxes here every day. I never know what’s the in the boxes,” he said.
“That’s crazy — millions of dollars. What am I going to think? I get paid to deliver stuff.”
The Jakacki’s bought their Greenwich home in 2012, according to public records. The house is 5,300 square feet, has 5 bedrooms, 4.5 bathrooms, and is now worth $2.8 million, according to Zillow.com.
The couple also owns a $250,000 home in Suffolk County, public records state.
Additional reporting by Reuven Fenton