The U.S. Justice Department released the below information:
A Pennsylvania
man was sentenced today in the District of New Jersey to 60 months in prison
for conspiracy to distribute oxycodone, a highly addictive controlled
substance.
According to
court documents, between July 2019 and July 2024, Michael Emma, 66, of
Philadelphia, engaged in the unlawful sale of prescription oxycodone pills as a
member of South Philadelphia’s notorious “10th and O Crew.” Emma obtained the
pills from doctors’ offices in the area, and he and his co-conspirators worked
in shifts to distribute the pills from a 24-hour restaurant.
During the course of the investigation, law enforcement purchased pills from one of Emma’s co-conspirators. A surveillance team then observed the co-conspirator counting the proceeds of the transaction with Emma. The photograph below captured Emma (on the left) after the transaction:
In June 2025,
Emma pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to unlawfully distribute
controlled substances. Emma’s co-conspirators and leaders of the 10th and O Crew, Michael Procopio and
Frank Procopio, were each convicted of conspiracy to unlawfully distribute
controlled substances and sentenced to six years in prison and four years and
nine months in prison, respectively.
The FBI, DEA,
and Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General, Medicaid Fraud Control Unit
investigated the case.
Trial Attorneys
Paul J. Koob and Nicholas K. Peone of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section
prosecuted the case.
On April 7, the
Department of Justice announced the creation of the National Fraud Enforcement
Division ('Fraud Division'). The Fraud Division is laser-focused on
investigating and prosecuting those who commit fraud against the American
people. The Department’s work to combat fraud supports President Trump’s Task
Force to Eliminate Fraud, a whole-of-government effort chaired by Vice
President J.D. Vance to eliminate fraud, waste, and abuse within Federal
benefit programs.
The Department
of Justice’s Health Care Fraud Strike Force Program, currently comprised of
nine strike forces operating in federal districts across the country, has
charged more than 6,200 defendants who collectively billed federal health care
programs and private insurers more than $45 billion since 2007. In addition,
the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, working in conjunction with
the Office of the Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human
Services, are taking steps to hold providers accountable for their involvement
in health care fraud schemes. More information can be found at www.justice.gov/criminal-fraud/health-care-fraud-unit
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