Owner of St. Bernard trailer park booked with intent to distribute 800 prescription pain and anxiety pills worth $5,000; S.O. believes he accepted drugs and food stamp cards to re-pay loans made and for rent

J Adam Ciuffi, booked with 800 prescription drugs in St. Bernard Parish

The 800 pills recovered in a pillowcase in Ciuffi’s Meraux home, all prescribed to others, and Louisiana food stamp cards found.

Adam Ciuffi Sr., 64, an owner of a St. Bernard Parish trailer park, had a small pharmacy of some 800 prescription drugs in his Meraux home but they weren’t kept on shelves. Sheriff’s narcotics agents found them in a pillow case in about 30 bottles prescribed to others when a search warrant was served, Sheriff James Pohlmann said.

There were also numerous Louisiana food stamp cards in a wallet in the home at 2540 Lawrence Drive. The combined value of the pills if they were sold on the street was estimated at just under $5,000.

Pohlmann said Ciuffi, an owner of Myrtle Grove Trailer Park in Meraux, claimed he was holding the medication for other people he said are acquaintances.

But further investigation shows Ciuffi may have been acting as a loan shark, making loans to people and asking for prescription drugs and food stamp cards as payment if the borrowers couldn’t fully re-pay, the sheriff said. He said there are also indications Ciuffi was accepting pills and cards as rent payment from people living at the trailer park.

Ciuffi was booked with 29 counts of possession with intent to distribute prescription drugs, mostly painkillers and anti-anxiety medication. Drugs found included Vicodin, Suboxone pills and strips, Oxycocone, Clonazepam, Tramodol and others. None of the drugs were prescribed to Ciuffi.

He was released from St. Bernard Parish Prison on bond of $150,000.

Ciuffi was arrested July 12 but it wasn’t revealed by the Sheriff’s Office until Friday while agents of the Special Investigations Division commanded by Maj. Chad Clark conducted an investigation of the names listed on the prescription bottles, Pohlmann said.

The investigation into the case is ongoing and there could be further charges, the sheriff said.

Anyone with additional information should call the sheriff’s DOPE Hotline at 271-DOPE and a message can be left anonymously.

More than 35 years ago, in the mid-1970s, Ciuffi was arrested on a charge of murder in St. Bernard Parish. He pleaded guilty to manslaughter in 1977 and was sentenced to 21 years in prison.