Essex County, New Jersey, Man Sentenced To 41 Months In Prison For Role In Oxycodone Distribution Ring

NEWARK, N.J. – A Belleville, New Jersey, man was sentenced today to 41 months in prison for his role in a conspiracy to illegally obtain and distribute oxycodone in New Jersey, Acting U.S. Attorney William E. Fitzpatrick announced.

Rickie Horvath, 56, previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Esther Salas to an indictment charging him with one count of conspiracy to distribute oxycodone. Judge Salas imposed the sentence today in Newark federal court.

According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:

Using confidential sources, physical surveillance, and recorded text messages and telephone calls, investigators with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) discovered that members and suppliers of a drug-trafficking organization secured prescriptions for oxycodone and other controlled substances from various doctors in New Jersey, filled them at pharmacies in Belleville and elsewhere, and sold the drugs for a profit. The investigation identified Horvath as a member of the drug trafficking organization.

Horvath admitted that from Feb. 5, 2014 to Aug. 13, 2014, he personally went to various doctors’ offices and obtained prescriptions for pills containing oxycodone, had the prescriptions filled, and sold the pills to members of the conspiracy and others. He said that on a single day in June 2014, he traveled to a doctor’s office in Livingston, New Jersey, where he and two conspirators each obtained a prescription for 60 Endocet pills. Horvath and his conspirators dropped off the three prescriptions to be filled by a pharmacy in East Orange, New Jersey. Horvath admitted that he and his two conspirators then found a fourth conspirator to buy the 180 Endocet pills. Horvath and his conspirators traveled to the East Orange pharmacy with the third conspirator buyer, where Horvath used the fourth conspirator’s money to purchase the filled prescriptions. Horvath and his conspirators then sold the 180 Endocet pills to the fourth conspirator.  
 
Oxycodone is a Schedule II controlled substance – meaning that it has a high potential for abuse, a currently accepted medical use with severe restrictions, and abuse of the drug may lead to severe psychological or physical dependence. The Endocet pills obtained and sold by Horvath each contained 10 milligrams of oxycodone.

In addition to the prison term, Judge Salas sentenced Horvath to three years of supervised release.

Of the 16 people that have been charged in this conspiracy, 13 have been convicted, including the leader, Victoria Horvath, who was sentenced Oct. 20, 2016 to 92 months in prison. Charges against a defendant who died in April 2014 have been dismissed.

Acting U.S. Attorney Fitzpatrick credited the DEA’s New Jersey Division, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Carl J. Kotowski, with the investigation.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Sara F. Merin of the OCDETF/Narcotics Unit of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Newark. The principal mission of the OCDETF program, under which this investigation was conducted, is to identify, disrupt and dismantle the most serious drug-trafficking, weapons-trafficking and money-laundering organizations, and those primarily responsible for the nation’s illegal drug supply.

Defense counsel: Damian Conforti Esq., Newark