NJ Pharmacy Pleads Guilty in Opioid

What Happened

On August 3, 2022, Dunn Meadow LLC, doing business as Dunn Meadow Pharmacy of Fort Lee, New Jersey, pleaded guilty to an information charging it with conspiring to illegally distribute prescription fentanyl and giving kickbacks to healthcare providers. The pharmacy admitted that from 2015 through 2019 it dispensed transmucosal immediate release fentanyl and other controlled substances knowing the prescriptions were not written for a legitimate medical purpose. It also signed a civil settlement under the False Claims Act and the Controlled Substances Act, agreeing to pay up to $50 million over five years if it generates future revenue.

“Dunn Meadow LLC (doing business as Dunn Meadow Pharmacy) of Fort Lee, New Jersey, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Julien Neals”
U.S. Department of Justice / U.S. Attorney's Office press release, Aug 3, 2022

Related Guidance

15 Red Flags of Drug Diversion — Behavioral and transactional indicators of diversion.
Investigation Playbook — How to investigate suspected diversion inside an organization.

Sources

U.S. Department of Justice / U.S. Attorney's Office press release, Aug 3, 2022

Case at a Glance

Setting: Mail-order retail pharmacy
Drug: Transmucosal immediate release fentanyl and other controlled substances
Method: Dispensing knowing prescriptions lacked a legitimate medical purpose
Status: Guilty plea August 2022 and civil settlement; up to $50 million over five years if future revenue is generated

Source: U.S. Department of Justice

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Last reviewed: September 2026 · Educational content, not legal advice.

About the author

DivertGuard is built and maintained by Alex Rodriguez, MHIIM, CPhT (also known as Jesus Rodriguez) — a drug diversion prevention program manager with more than a decade in pharmacy practice, including direct responsibility for a health-system controlled substance diversion prevention program.

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2025 — The Rounding Revolution: A High-Tech Approach to Diversion Prevention (with Emily Spiceland, PharmD)
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Published author, Pharmacy Purchasing & Products

Credentials

Doctorate candidate — Doctor of Health Informatics (DHI), Rutgers University, School of Health Professions; research on health data analytics and the prediction of cognitive decline
MHIIM — master's in health informatics, University of Tennessee Health Science Center (2019–2021)
CPhT — Certified Pharmacy Technician, with 10+ years of pharmacy practice across retail, hospice, compounding, home-health, and hospital settings

The assessment items, weighting, and case registry behind this site come from that operational background — building and running a diversion prevention program, not from vendor marketing. Every tool here is free, requires no signup, and is based on published regulatory and professional standards (DEA, Joint Commission, ASHP, CDC).

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Related Resources

Diversion Settlements & Fines

Settlements, civil penalties and criminal fines paid by hospitals and pharmacies in documented drug diversion cases, with the amount, year and primary source for each

Penalty Outcomes in the Case Records

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Registry Insights: Sentences, Fines, States and Outcomes

Sentence lengths, fines and restitution, cases per 100,000 pharmacists by state, and plea and licence outcomes, each counted from the case records with its n, plus charts of cases by year, state and drug class

NJ Pharmacy Pleads Guilty in Opioid, Kickback Case