Addicts, dealers plunder pharmacies in USA

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Addicts, dealers plunder pharmacies

By Tisch, Times Staff Writer

Published Sunday, March 16, 2008 8:28 PM

In 2003, a Belleair police officer was inside this drugstore and saw a

robbery unfold. He shot the robber, who went to prison in the case.

His girlfriend got probation and later overdosed.

Last year, a man with gauze wrapped around his head and ketchup

smeared on his face barged into a Walgreens in Holiday, announced he

had a gun and demanded prescription painkillers.

Three months later, a Citrus County paramedic waving a knife jumped

the counter at a Spring Hill CVS and demanded OxyContin.

That same day, a man broke into a Pinellas Park doctor's office and

punched through the wall to get into an adjoining pharmacy.

Pharmacy robberies and burglaries are on the rise, police say,

attributing it to a surge in prescription drug addiction and abuse.

In most cases, the robbers ignore the till and ask just for pills.

" They tell them exactly what they want in almost every case, " said

Sgt. Holbrook, supervisor of the Pinellas sheriff's robbery

unit. " They tell them they want oxies, they want Xanax, hydrocodones. "

Pinellas sheriff's detectives investigated three pharmacy robberies

from 2002 to 2004, but 15 from 2005 to 2007. The agency has

investigated three pharmacy robberies so far this year.

Many robbers are addicts, but some are dealers, police say. Pharmacy

stickups or break-ins can net thousands of pills that can be sold on

the street for about $1 a milligram. At that rate, a 120-count bottle

of 80 milligram pills can sell for nearly $10,000.

A St. sburg Times series published last month reported that about

500 people fatally overdosed on prescription drugs in the Tampa Bay

area in 2007 — triple the deaths from illicit drugs like cocaine and

heroin.

Statewide, the death toll from prescription overdoses was on pace for

nearly 2,000 people in 2007. Final figures still are being compiled.

The Times studied two years of autopsy and investigative reports

generated in nearly 800 Tampa Bay area deaths. Those who fatally

overdosed are a complex mixture of substance abusers, pain patients

and people with psychological problems.

While some received legitimate prescriptions from doctors, others

resorted to prescription fraud, doctor shopping or illegal Internet

sites to get their drugs.

Still others used force.

In June 2003, Gilmartin walked into a Belleair drugstore with

a ski mask on his head and a realistic-looking toy gun. He demanded

OxyContin.

Outside, his girlfriend, Indi Barringer, acted as a lookout. She

didn't notice the marked Belleair police cruiser parked five spaces away.

The officer, who was inside the drugstore, saw the robbery unfold. He

shot Gilmartin in the shoulder.

Gilmartin and Barringer were arrested for robbery. He was sentenced to

27 months in prison. She got probation.

Two years later, Gilmartin found Barringer, 31, dead in their home.

She had overdosed on methadone, which is increasingly used to treat

pain, and cocaine.

In another case in April 2005, Clearwater resident Chiccino

plowed her husband's Chevy Suburban into a Safety Harbor pharmacy's

front door. She hopped out and filled a pail with pill bottles.

Deputies stopped her before she could flee. She was charged with

burglary and placed in an intervention program.

A year later, Chiccino, 46, died of an overdose of oxycodone, morphine

and cocaine.

People seeking prescription drugs aren't just targeting pharmacies.

They're also burglarizing homes where they know prescriptions are kept

or robbing people after they get their pills.

Crimes committed to gain prescription drugs also are increasing

nationwide, said Capt. Conklin, commander of investigations

for the Stamford Police Department in Connecticut.

He oversees a Web site that helps law enforcement officials track

trends and share information about suspects in pharmacy robberies and

burglaries. The site, which offers rewards for information, was

launched about five years ago by Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin.

Conklin said most of the robberies are committed by addicts. But he

said more sophisticated burglars travel from town to town looking for

pharmacies to break into, then flush the pills onto the black market.

" They chop a hole in the roof and lower themselves down like in

Mission: Impossible, and they don't set off an alarm, " he said.

Conklin said more pharmacies are installing surveillance cameras and

taking other steps to protect themselves.

In October, Seminole pharmacist Dr. Mina Yousef was robbed when a man

entered his store, Trinity Pharmacy, ordered him to the ground and

told employees to fill a black duffel bag with pain pills. The robber

escaped. No one was hurt.

On Feb. 25, Yousef was the target of another robbery. A man who had

been a customer pulled out a syringe and demanded drugs. Yousef led

the man to the back storage area and locked him inside. The man was

arrested.

Yousef, whose wife is expecting their first child, says he has taken

measures to tighten security at the pharmacy.

He said the holdups make him wonder if he made the right career choice.

" It's getting scarier and scarier, " he said. " We need to put a stop to

this. "

Bill Stivers, training and education director for the National

Association of Drug Diversion Investigators, said robberies will

decline if drug abuse is curbed.

" The amount of robberies — that's a result of the intensity of the

addiction, " he said.

http://www.tampabay.com/news/article419850.ece