Antonio J. Caniglia

Among the prescription drugs Antonio J. Caniglia allegedly sold were 75,000 tablets of OxyContin, a powerful painkiller said to be responsible for more than 100 drug-overdose deaths nationwide in recent years.

Bank records show that the pharmacist made at least 108 cash deposits, mostly $9,000 at a time, totaling $915,000, between January 1999 and last April.

Caniglia, 34, owner of Highland Park Pharmacy in Upper Darby, was deemed to be "a danger to the community" by U.S. Magistrate Judge Jacob P. Hart.
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The judge refused to set bail and ordered Caniglia jailed pending trial.

Caniglia was "no different from any less fortunate individual who gets arrested in North Philadelphia" for selling crack cocaine, the judge said.

If convicted, Caniglia, a father of five who is "active in his church," according to his defense attorney, is facing more than 12 years in prison under estimated federal sentencing guidelines, said federal prosecutor Michael A. Schwartz.
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Caniglia is charged with conspiracy, possession and distribution of drugs, record-keeping omissions, money laundering and structuring financial transactions.

Caniglia "used his pharmacy as a street corner drug distribution center," the prosecutor told the judge.And Caniglia kept selling drugs illegally, even after federal agents searched his shop last June.

Unaware his words were being recorded, the pharmacist told a cooperating witness in December that "not much" would come of the investigation.

A 99-count indictment charges that Caniglia allegedly sold OxyContin in batches of up to 2,500 tablets at a time to a known drug dealer.

Caniglia allegedly sold OxyContin for $3 a piece for 10 mg tablets and up to $12 each for 80 mg tablets.

His pharmacy was the third largest purchaser of OxyContin (excluding mail order pharmacies) in Pennsylvania in the year 2000, the prosecutor told the judge.

Caniglia also allegedly sold 200,000 additional painkillers, in lots of up to 20,000 at a time, to the same alleged dealer, co-defendant Christopher DiDonato, 28, of Willistown, Chester County.
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The indictment, made public yesterday after the pharmacist's arrest, contends that Caniglia used a cell phone to arrange for drug sales.

In his Chevrolet Corvette or Jeep Cherokee, Caniglia delivered drugs to DiDonato late at night at the pharmacy, at Caniglia's home, and at Caniglia's cigar store, Smokin' Iguana, in Morton, the grand jury charged.

The federal indictment, unsealed today, names Antonio J. Caniglia, 34, of Broomall, Delaware County; Christopher DiDonato, 28, of Willistown, Chester County; and Scott Andrews, 41, of Drexel Hill, Delaware County.
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The indictment alleges that Caniglia, owner of Highland Park Pharmacy in Upper Darby, sold more than 75,000 OxyContin tablets and 200,000 Lortab and Vicodin tablets, receiving more than $900,000.He could be sentenced to 1,837 years in prison if convicted.

The indictment alleges that DiDonato bought the pills from Caniglia and stored some of them in Andrews' home.

Prosecutors say the guilty plea by Antonio J. Caniglia will cost the former Broomall druggist his Highland Park Pharmacy in Upper Darby, a Drexel Hill house he owns, and possibly the next decade of his life.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael A. Schwartz said Caniglia's family had agreed to come up with $100,000 before his March 3 sentencing toward $500,000 Caniglia agreed to forfeit.
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Caniglia, 34, in federal custody since his March 29 arrest, said little at the hearing but did respond to the judge's questions about understanding the constitutional rights he was waiving.

He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute OxyContin and other controlled pharmaceuticals, distribution of drugs within 1,000 feet of a school, omitting information from required pharmacy records, and money laundering.

The charges involve the sale from 1998 to 2001 of more than 75,000 tablets of the prescription narcotic OxyContin and 200,000 tablets of such prescription painkillers as Vicodin.

The money-laundering charges involve Caniglia's attempt to hide more than $900,000 in cash drug profits using bank accounts for the pharmacy and his Morton cigar store, Smokin' Iguana, and $738,000 invested in stocks.

Schwartz estimated that Caniglia faces a 108- to 135-month, no-parole prison term under federal sentencing guidelines.
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Caniglia owned and operated Highland Park Pharmacy since 1993.But in the late 1990s, court documents say, the quantity of his prescription narcotic purchases aroused the suspicion of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration.

Though he appeared to be an independent neighborhood druggist, court records say that in 2000 Caniglia was Pennsylvania's third-largest purchaser of OxyContin.

In June 2001, Schwartz said, agents searched Caniglia's pharmacy and, based on store records, determined that Caniglia could not account for 75,000 OxyContin tablets.
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But the big break in the case came in October 2001, when local police in Delaware County arrested two men - Christopher DiDonato, 28, of Willistown, and Scott Andrews, 41, of Drexel Hill - who turned out to be middlemen between Caniglia and street drug users.