Police have arrested three Dedham men on charges of trafficking in prescription painkillers the culmination of a months-long investigation into the sale and distribution of narcotics in Dedham and West Roxbury.
Evangelos Nomikos, 24, of 60 Egan Terrace, Nicholas Vacca, 24, and Brian Packard, 25, of 86 Thomas St. were each charged with trafficking of a class A substance, oxycodone, and conspiracy to violate state drug laws.
Update: Nicholas Vacca does not have a permanent address, police say. According to Dedham Police, Vacca has not been living at the address he gave at the time of his arrest.
Police seized more than 100 tablets of oxycodone, a powerful painkiller.
Dedham Police said that over the past several months they had been investigating with a Boston Police drug control team. Nomikos works for a doctor at Children's Hospital Boston at Waltham, according to police.
While police listed Nomikos' address as Egan Terrace, they also said they obtained two warrants to search his home at 531 High St.
Before police began their surveillance there Wednesday evening, a "reliable confidential informant" told a Boston Police narcotics officer that Nomikos "had blank stolen prescriptions in his possession" and intended to forge and use a prescription, police said.
About 6:15 p.m., Nomikos drove his 1997 Oldsmobile Royale to the Dedham Institution for Savings in Dedham Square, before getting back in his car and returning home, police said.
Around 7 p.m., Nomikos drove with his girlfriend to a Rite Aid on Rte. 1A in Norwood, police said. Nomikos took a pair of aluminum crutches from his trunk "and hobbled into the pharmacy," police reported. Nomikos failed to get any pills because his insurance would not approve the transaction, pharmacy manager Thomas Donelin told police.
Nomikos and his alleged accomplices were more successful later in the night, picking up oxycodone from a CVS in Waltham as well as at a Walgreens, according to police.
Back in Dedham, surveillance teams saw a person arrive at Nomikos's home at about 9:40 p.m., police said. In less than a minute, the Oldsmobile was on the move again, heading south on Providence Highway, then turning onto I-95 North, police reported.
Police followed the car to a CVS at 12 Harvard St. in Waltham, where a passenger - later identified as Packard - got out, retrieved a pair of crutches, and hobbled into the store, police said. An officer followed, and after Packard left the store, the officer confirmed with pharmacist Jennifer Lamoureux that Packard had just filled a prescription for 120 30mg oxycodone tablets, paying cash, police said.
The Oldsmobile went west on Rte. 20 to a Walgreens, which another passenger entered, police said. The car returned to I-95 and headed back to Dedham, where it was stopped on Ames Street by Dedham Police Officer Francis McMillan.
Nomikos was the driver, with Vacca in the front passenger seat and Packard in the rear, according to Detective Robert Walsh.
Walsh said he found an orange CVS prescription pill bottle, bearing Packard's name, for the 120 oxycodone tablets that had been obtained in Waltham. Walsh said he also found plastic Walgreens bags in the car holding more pills.
From the car's center console, police seized a cellophane cigarette wrapper containing 61.5 30mg Oxycodone tablets, and a prescription made out to Nomikos for 120 30mg tablets, police said.
In the trunk, police said they found "a grey backpack and cardboard box containing what appear to be confidential patient medical records."
In all, police said they recovered 112.5 30mg Oxycodone tablets, weighing a total of 14 grams.
A Children's Hospital spokesman said late yesterday afternoon that Nomikos has been placed on leave, and that the hospital is cooperating with authorities.
Edward B. Colby can be reached at 781-433-8336 or ecolby@cnc.com.
