Doctor Indicted for Alleged New Jersey Oxycodone Ring

A doctor has been indicted in New Jersey for allegedly writing illegal prescriptions for an oxycodone ring.  Hassan Lahham faces 11 counts of distributing oxycodone and one count of conspiracy to distribute. 

Each count carries a maximum 20-year prison sentence. The U.S. Attorney's Office says Lahham began illegally issuing prescriptions for drugs containing the powerful painkiller as early as January 2009. The prescriptions allegedly were filled at pharmacies in Monmouth, Ocean and Atlantic counties and then redistributed. Lahham has been jailed since his arrest last May along with more than 20 others. Prosecutors estimated at the time that the ring wrote more than 6,000 prescriptions for more than 500,000 oxycodone tablets between January 2009 and December 2010. Lahham's attorney didn't return a phone message Thursday.

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