CAMDEN – A former employee of a Mount Holly medical practice has been sentenced to 30 months in prison for selling fake prescriptions.
Jose Colon, 37, of Sicklerville, used the identities of doctors he worked with to make and sell fake prescriptions for painkillers, sedatives and other medications, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Jersey.
Colon engaged in cash transactions, but also transferred some prescriptions electronically to pharmacies “in exchange for electronic payments from his customers,” federal prosecutors said in a statement.
He told customers to wait until the practice closed for the day before they filled their prescriptions. That way, the statement said, “Column will be able to answer any phone calls from pharmacies that question the authenticity of fake prescriptions.”
According to the US Attorney’s Office, Colon sold the prescriptions between 2018 and 2020.
It said one of Colon’s customers agreed to cooperate with the investigation after he was charged with attempting to write a counterfeit prescription in 2019.
Authorities have not released the name of the Mount Holly practice where Colon, who was not a medical professional, worked.
Colon pleaded guilty in February to distribution of controlled substances.
He was sentenced Monday by U.S. District Judge Christine P. O’Hearn in federal court in Camden.
Jim Walsh is a senior reporter for the Courier-Post, Burlington County Times and The Daily Journal.
