A half-mile section of Washington Heights has been transformed into an open-air prescription drug bazaar, with brazen vendors illegally peddling painkillers, erectile dysfunction pills, and an array of other meds, The Post has learned.<\/p>\n
The sprawling street pharmacy stretches across 10 square blocks, in and around West 179th to West 183rd streets and St. Nicholas Avenue with at least 20 vendors showcasing their wares in loose blister packs, boxes, and bottles strewn across dingy folding tables.<\/p>\n
\u201cIs it for an adult? You can take up to three a day until they\u2019re all gone,\u201d barked a vendor selling blister packs of the antibiotic amoxicillin for $5 a sheet.<\/p>\n
A vendor on St. Nicholas Avenue near West 180th Street in Washington Heights sells loose blister packs of pills which are smuggled into New York from the Dominican Republic. J.C. Rice for NY Post<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s for phlegm, for the throat. Or one in the morning and one at night,\u201d she advised, standing next to a busy bus stop on West 181st Street and St. Nicholas.<\/p>\n
A shopper who saw the pills chimed in with approval. \u201cThose are really good! They\u2019re powerful stuff. When there\u2019s an infection, it cures it. When I give it to my grandson, I give him three a day!\u201d<\/p>\n
Amoxicillin was among the alarming cornucopia of pills available this week, including: erectile dysfunction meds Viagra and Cialis; Cataclofen Plus, for pain and inflammation; and antibiotic Ampicillin. <\/p>\n
\u201cSomeone is going to die from this, I have no doubt,\u201d warned Councilwoman Joann Ariola (R-Queens).<\/p>\n
\u201cWho knows what\u2019s actually in the things being peddled here? This is a prescription for disaster. Where is the NYPD with this, and why is the Mamdani administration allowing this to go on?\u201d<\/p>\n
The Spanish-speaking sellers arrive at about 9 a.m. every morning with product in wheeled carts, set up their tables and umbrellas, and sit outside until about 6 p.m.<\/p>\n
A roughly 10-block area has nearly two dozen tables where hawkers sell identical set-ups of the smuggled meds. J.C. Rice for NY Post<\/p>\n
The vendors buy the drugs in the Dominican Republic, where many can be purchased over the counter, and smuggle them in to Gotham to sell for profit.<\/p>\n
Occasionally there are hiccups. <\/p>\n
\u201cI once brought two boxes of Ampicillin, but they seized and confiscated them at the airport. Some people manage to get them through, others don\u2019t,\u201d said one of the several vendors who spoke to The Post and declined to give his name.<\/p>\n
On a good day, the Washington Heights vendors can bring home $300 \u2014 or more, they said. <\/p>\n
How much profit they make is up to the individual sellers.<\/p>\n
One of the tables offered powerful prescription erection pill Viagra.<\/p>\n
Pain med Cataclofen Plus, for example, sells for just $0.09 per pill at popular Dominican Republic chain Farmacias Los Hidalgos<\/a>, but costs $10 for four pills on St. Nicholas.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are medicines that cost $10. Let\u2019s take 1000 mg Ampicillin, for example. You might pay $7 or $8 dollars [in the Dominican Republic] for it, depending. You ask for $10 [in New York], and they offer $8\u2014it varies. But if they offer $8, you might make a dollar or 50 cents in profit,\u201d said another hawker.<\/p>\n The feds targeted prescription drug pushers in the nabe over a decade ago. In 2012, the Justice Department prosecuted 16 prescription pill peddlers in Washington Heights when gangs were operating as \u201cstreet-corner pharmacists\u201d between West 156th and West 158th streets.<\/p>\n Cialis, an erectile dysfunction pill, was among the various medications offered at the tables in Washington Heights.<\/p>\n Today\u2019s sellers have no fear of being uprooted from the drug market, which has existed in varying forms over the years but exploded under the Mamdani administration, under fire for its hands-off approach to the blocks-long homeless encampment<\/a> between the Intrepid Museum and the Jacob Javits Center<\/a>.<\/p>\n Occasional enforcement action occurs, but another vendor shrugged it off as just the cost of doing business.<\/p>\n \u201cJust leave [the products] all behind and walk away,\u201d the vendor said with a laugh.<\/p>\n One table along St. Nicholas Avenue offers a vial of pills in an unmarked container. J.C. Rice for NY Post<\/p>\n This week, a Post reporter observed NYPD officers walking past at least nine tables crowded with illegal prescription drugs without taking any action.<\/p>\n Residents said they were disgusted by the increasing sense of lawlessness in the neighborhood, whose 34th Precinct has seen an overall drop in major crimes, but where robbery is up 13%, assaults are up 14% and burglaries up 9% in the past year, police data show.<\/p>\n \u201cI really find it surprising because regardless of what, it\u2019s a drug,\u201d said one woman about the lack of enforcement. <\/p>\n \u201cI find a lot of things strange \u2014 there\u2019s a whole bunch of cops around and people are selling medicine. People are smoking weed up and down the street. It\u2019s like, \u2018Wow, OK. Times have really changed.’\u201d<\/p>\n Vendors say they can take home as much as $300 a day and make their profit of markups of cheap prescriptions from the Dominican Republic. J.C. Rice for NY Post<\/p>\n The woman, who gave her first name as Dawn, continued: \u201cI would never buy it. I would never buy any medications unless it\u2019s from a pharmacy.\u201d<\/p>\n The Department of Sanitation is the lead agency for street vendor enforcement. <\/p>\n Unlicensed street vendors can be hit with $250 for their first violation, with subsequent violations costing $1,000 each plus another $250 for each day out of compliance.<\/p>\n The cornucopia of pills offered at tables ranges from Tylenol and fish oil supplements to prescription pain medication like Cataclofen Plus. J.C. Rice for NY Post<\/p>\n Selling prescription drugs without a valid license is a Class D felony in the state of New York which can result in up to seven years in prison.<\/p>\n Illegally importing and peddling prescription drugs from abroad is a federal and state crime, and the penalties can range from $1,000 to $250,000 in fines and one to 20 years in prison.<\/p>\n A manager of a West 181st pharmacy warned against taking any of the al fresco meds.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\tStart your day with all you need to know\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMorning Report delivers the latest news, videos, photos and more.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \u201cI have seen some diabetes medicines, prescription items. They are not keeping the medicines at a particular temperature. It is definitely bad for the people,\u201d the licensed worker, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said.<\/p>\n \u201cI have seen Jardiance 25 milligrams on St. Nicholas. This is hazardous,\u201d he said of the powerful diabetes drug.<\/p>\n One local pharmacist warned that the meds, which are not properly stored, could be hurting the people attempting to get healthy. J.C. Rice for NY Post<\/p>\n \u201cRegulators come here and ask for a thousand things because we are a pharmacy. We have to comply with this rule, this rule, that rule. The same people then go on the street, they see bad things and they don\u2019t do anything,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The neighborhood\u2019s lefty Councilwoman Carmen De La Rosa (D-Manhattan) has pushed to allow street vendors to occupy even more space on the curbs of her neighborhood.<\/p>\n One of the loose blister sheets of amoxicillin which sell for $5 each. J.C. Rice for NY Post<\/p>\n