Former Mercer County Pharmacist Sentenced to 120 Months’ Imprisonment After Convictions for Illegally Distributing Oxycodone from Trenton Pharmacy

TRENTON, N.J. - A former Mercer County pharmacist was sentenced yesterday for her role in a conspiracy to distribute and dispense outside the course of professional practice large quantities of Schedule II controlled substances, including oxycodone, from a pharmacy formerly located in Trenton, New Jersey, United States Attorney Robert Frazer announced.

Florence Ndubizu, 66, of Princeton Junction, New Jersey, was convicted on January 22, 2025 following a two-week trial before U.S. District Judge Zahid N. Quraishi in Trenton federal court on two counts of an indictment charging her with conspiracy to unlawfully distribute and dispense Schedule II controlled substances, including oxycodone, between 2014 and 2017 and maintaining a premises for the illegal distribution of controlled substances. Judge Quraishi imposed the 120-month sentence on June 2, 2026 in Trenton federal court.

According to documents filed in this case and the evidence presented at trial:

Between 2014 and 2017, Ndubizu was the co-owner and pharmacist-in-charge of Healthcare Pharmacy in Trenton. She and her employee conspirators, acting at her direction, filled fraudulent prescriptions outside the usual course of professional practice, knowing that the drugs would not be used for a legitimate medical purpose, but instead would be illegally diverted, including to street-level drug dealers. Ndubizu, operating a single-location pharmacy, purchased and distributed millions of dosage units of oxycodone, including over 800,000 pills in 2014; over 900,000 pills in 2015; over 800,000 pills in 2016; and over 200,000 pills in 2017, the year that the Drug Enforcement Administration ("DEA") suspended the pharmacy's registration.

Ndubizu diverted oxycodone pills and then evaded state and federal reporting requirements by manipulating the pharmacy's records. The DEA conducted an audit of Healthcare Pharmacy's inventory and found that between April 2015 and August 2017 alone, Ndubizu and Healthcare Pharmacy diverted more than 64,000 oxycodone containing pills.

In addition to the prison term, Judge Quraishi sentenced Ndubizu to three years of supervised release following Ndubizu's term of imprisonment and ordered a fine of $350,000.

U.S. Attorney Frazer credited special agents, diversion investigators, and task force officers of the DEA, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Towanda R. Thorne-James; special agents of the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigations, Newark Field Office, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Jenifer Piovesan; officers of the Trenton Police Department, under the supervision of Director Steve Wilson, members of the Mercer County Prosecutor's Office, under the direction of Prosecutor Janetta D. Marbrey, and members of the Gloucester County Prosecutor's Office, under the direction of Prosecutor Andrew B. Johns, with the investigation leading to the sentencing.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan S. Garelick of the U.S. Attorney's Office Criminal Division in Trenton.

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Defense counsel: Shrey Sharma, Esq., of Oberheiden P.C.