A New Castle pharmacist apologized yesterday for selling more than 1 million doses of drugs without prescriptions but blamed much of his behavior on his divorce, which he said cost him his house.

"I had no assets," said Daniel C. Gebbia, 38, who appeared in federal court with his ankles shackled. "The only thing I could think of to do was put an ad online and foolishly sell drugs without prescriptions.

"I'm very sorry for what I did. If I could take it all back, I would."

He can't, and so U.S. District Judge David Cercone sent him to federal prison for 51 months.

Gebbia, who has been in jail for more than two years, pleaded guilty in May to illegal distribution of narcotics and other charges as part of an ongoing investigation into pharmacies that sell drugs illegally on the Internet.

As the owner of Crown Drug Inc., he admitted to selling narcotics online to people who didn't have legitimate doctors' prescriptions. He also pleaded guilty to transmitting a threatening communication and conspiracy to launder money.

He created fake prescription records and distributed more than a million doses of the painkiller hydrocodone and more than 409,000 doses of anti-anxiety medications in 2001 and 2002.

He also threatened a customer online on May 1, 2002.

Gebbia used payments from his customers to buy more prescription drugs to resell on the Internet and to buy personal items.

As part of his plea, he agreed to forfeit $787,700 in drug proceeds, his business, the Internet domain name Crowndrug.bigstep.com and five vehicles, including two Dodge Vipers.

Federal prosecutors had earlier this year filed court papers to forfeit $43,000 in cash and a Ford Thunderbird convertible as part of the investigation of Gebbia and Kathleen Kautz, who ran the pharmacy with him.

Gebbia is one of several local pharmacists targeted in recent years by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the IRS and the FBI for illegal sales on the Internet here and across the United States.

The latest charges came last week when a federal grand jury indicted Anthony A. Grejda, 43, of Peters, and Lisa St. Peter, 40, of Rosslyn Farms, on 112 counts of fraud and tax evasion related to selling drugs online without prescriptions from 1998 to 2002.

Grejda was the owner of a Medicine Shoppe pharmacy at 109 Stotz Ave. in Crafton and a second "closed-door" mail order pharmacy called Today's TDI Inc. that operated out of the basement and specialized in selling drugs for people with HIV.

Prosecutors say the pair made thousands of dollars from fraudulent insurance reimbursements.

That investigation also includes another local pharmacist, Charles McArdle, whose CMC Pharmacy in Carnegie was raided by federal agents in May.