Philly, You ever heard of this guy Colangelo? He was raking in $150,000.00 a day


Drug agents raided 11 pain clinics from Miami to West Palm Beach on Wednesday, arresting 23 people and seizing $2.5 million in cash and dozens of cars in the biggest single strike yet at Florida's pain pill industry.

Among those arrested were four physicians, including the son of Broward Medical Examiner Joshua Perper, and five owners of raided pain clinics, officials said.






The biggest catch, officials said, was [b]Vincent Colangelo, 42, a Davie man who earned an estimated $150,000 a day from the seven now-shuttered pain centers he owned.

Law enforcement agencies moved to seize from the Colangelo operation $22 million in assets, including homes, an Okeechobee trailer park and 46 vehicles. Agents displayed a parking lot full of the high-priced cars, such as a Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren sports car and two Lamborghinis.

"Woo hoo, I want to do cartwheels," said Tina Reed, a Davie pill mill activist whose son almost died from an addiction from a pain clinic.

The raids were made by more than 400 federal, state and local officers, who fanned out in an orchestrated sweep that shut down some of the busiest and best known pain clinics in Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties. Agents with federal search warrants also raided and seized boxes of documents at 15 other clinics.

"We have indicted doctors and clinic owners who are acting as drug dealers," said Wilfredo Ferrer, U.S. Attorney for South Florida.

The raids were run by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Broward Sheriff's Office, Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office and police departments from four cities. Florida Department of Health inspectors were on hand to initiate disciplinary actions against doctors and owners.

The raids ratchet up the campaign against rogue pain clinics that officials said have doled out upwards of 15 million tablets per year of the the narcotic oxycodone, many to drug runners who stream down Interstate 95 from other states. Pill mills are called a major cause behind the deaths of seven Floridians a day from prescription drug overdoses.

Local police have been arresting addicts, who snort or smoke the drugs in pill mill parking lots. The state has disciplined doctors for excessive pain pill prescriptions. But Wednesday's raids go after those making big money from the drug sales, officials said.

Colangelo and six others who ran his centers were charged with trafficking more than 660,000 doses of narcotic pills in one year. They were accused of marketing the clinics on 1,600 Internet sites, making profit by selling pills at their own locations and charging each patient $250 cash per visit.

Only one doctor who works at Colangelo's clinics was arrested, but DEA Special Agent Mark Trouville, chief of the South Florida operation, said more arrests are coming. Undercover agents have made 340 buys of pain pills from 60 doctors and 40 clinics, only a fraction of which were raided Wednesday, he said.





In Oakland Park, a physician and several medical personnel in scrubs were handcuffed during a morning raid at Colangelo's high-volume Commercial Medical Group clinic, which was popular with out-of-state pill seekers.

"We're so happy all this is happening," said Julie DePasquale, a clerk at German Bread Haus two doors away. "I'll feel safer coming to work at 7 o'clock in the morning. The druggies are out there like the night of the living dead, waiting for that place to open. It's scary."

In Delray Beach, police arrested Dr. Zvi Harry Perper, the Broward medical examiner's son, at busy Delray Pain Management where the son is listed as the owner on state registration documents. Also arrested was the manager, Kent Murry, who had opened the clinic in 2009 and also trafficked in pain pills, prosecutors said in the charges.

After a 10 a.m. raid, Perper was led out in handcuffs and beige medical scrubs and escorted to a police car. One of many reporters watching the raid shouted a question, asking Perper if he thought this day would ever come.

"No," he said, refusing to comment further. Perper began working at the pain clinic after he was fined $10,000 by the state in 2008 for a botched abortion in Orlando, according to state records.

In Lake Worth, Dr. Robert Elessar was arrested at his 45th Street Medical pain clinic. Dr. Carlos Gonzalez Jr. was arrested at North Palm Beach Pain Management in Lake Park, along with the owners, Anthony Laterza and Donna Palemire.

The raids stem from pill mill investigations run by a multi-agency task force formed in 2009 at the DEA's local headquarters in Weston. Also involved were state and federal insurance fraud investigators and the Internal Revenue Service.

Some of the raided clinics have been under investigation for more than a year, officials said, and have supplied millions of narcotic pills to drug dealers and addicts across the Southeast.

South Florida has long been an easy source for pain pills, but a cottage industry of rogue pain clinics sprang up in Broward and Palm Beach counties over the past few years. At the peak, an estimated 300 pain clinics operated in the two counties, although it's now closer to 220.

blamendola@tribune.com or 954-356-4526


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