New Rochelle doctor accused in illegal narcotics deals

A New Rochelle doctor was arrested on June 5 and accused of conspiracy and 12 counts of distribution of narcotics for allegedly dispensing drugs without physically examining patients, and in many instances, not even meeting the patients.

Dr. Mordechai Bar wrote prescriptions for Oxycodone, Adderall and Xanax, “the Holy Trinity drug cocktail” used by drug abusers, according to the criminal complaint written by a Drug Enforcement Administration agent.

Oxycodone is a highly addictive opioid used to treat severe pain for conditions such as cancer. Adderall is a stimulant for treating attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Xanax is a depressant for treating anxiety and panic disorders. Oxycodone in particular, the complaint states, is in high demand by drug dealers and has a high street value.

Bar, 71, is certified in internal medicine and practices from an office on Huguenot St., New Rochelle. He lives in Larchmont.

From February 2023 to March 2024, a confidential informant acting on behalf of a federal Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force paid the doctor or his office staff $6,200 in cash for prescriptions, according to the criminal complaint.

The informant began working for the feds in December 2022, after agents with the Drug Enforcement Administration searched the informant’s home and found evidence of illegally distributed drugs. The informant had struggled with drug addiction for years, the government says, including during the Bar investigation, and cooperated in the hope of receiving lenient treatment for drug trafficking crimes.

The informant allegedly claimed that in 2012 a friend had identified Bar as a doctor who would write prescriptions for cash without performing an examination or administering tests.

The doctor’s staff may have taken the informant’s blood pressure a few times over the years and may have done one urinalysis, according to the complaint.

The government says the informant used some of the drugs but resold most of them.

Beginning on Feb. 16, 2023, the informant allegedly bought prescriptions from the doctor while wearing a recording device.

Prescriptions were allegedly written for five names: two names for the informant, the informant’s parents, and for Nicole Gilbert, a fictitious identity used by a law enforcement officer. Each script cost $100.

The first “controlled buy” lasted about ten minutes, according to the complaint, and  subsequent meeting lasted from a minute-in-a-half to three minutes. On four occasions, the doctor was not present and the informant allegedly paid staff members for the scripts.

The informant spent less than 27 minutes with the doctor, according to the complaint, and received scripts for thousands of tablets of narcotics.

The scripts were transmitted electronically to pharmacies in the Bronx and Queens associated with Feroze “Faroo” Nazirbage, according to the government.

Nazirbage, 50, of Nassau County, is not a pharmacist, according to a separate criminal complaint, but had access to the narcotics. The informant, under task force control, allegedly met Nazibrage eleven times for “backdoor” sales and paid $32,310 for the drugs.

The cases are being handled by prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney’s White Plains office.