NEW YORK, March 29 (UPI) -- Police said they arrested a New York City doctor for allegedly running an oxycodone ring in which more than $10 million worth of pills were dispensed.
Dr. Hector Castro pleaded innocent Tuesday in Manhattan Supreme Court to 39 counts of criminal sale of a prescription for a controlled substance, ABC News reported.
Criminal Court Judge James Burke set Castro's bail at $500,000.
Investigators said Castro was responsible for the distribution of 500,000 oxycodone pills in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania from September 2011 through February 2013.
Castro's office manager and four dozen others were also charged in the alleged scheme that the Drug Enforcement Administration called an "extensive interstate network of narcotics traffickers."
Police said they seized 28 firearms during the arrest of 41 members of the alleged ring's Pennsylvania "drug crews."
"The firearms recovered in this case also highlight how the gun violence associated with cocaine and heroin trafficking is now the muscle in the illegal oxycodone trade," said Bridget Brennan, New York City's special narcotics prosecutor.
