Feds bust largest pharmacy burglary ring in DEA history

WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) — Federal agents announced Thursday the largest case involving pharmacy burglaries in the history of the Drug Enforcement Administration.

DEA Administrator Anne Milgram told the Nexstar DC Bureau that agents arrested dozens of people involved in stealing opioid prescriptions from local pharmacies in more than half the states in the country and then selling them on the streets in Houston, Texas.

“It’s like something out of Mission Impossible,” Milgram said.

According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, Operation Low Crawl, which spanned several years, connected 200 burglaries at mom-and-pop pharmacies across 31 states with more than $12 million worth of stolen prescription drugs. It resulted in 42 arrests.

“They often low crawled through the pharmacies, and that’s why we call this Operation Low Crawl,” Milgram said. “They would basically be on their bellies on the floor of the pharmacy to try to detect the sensors.”

Milgram said the operation started with a string of burglaries in Arkansas and ultimately took down a large drug trafficking organization based in Houston.

“Most of these defendants are appearing in U.S. District Court here in Little Rock this afternoon,” said Jonathan Ross, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas.

Ross said investigators also seized 11 firearms, nearly $80,000 in cash and more than half a million dollars’ worth of custom jewelry.

“Which are proceeds from the sale of stolen pharmaceutical drugs,” Ross said.

Ross and Milgram stressed they couldn’t make Thursday’s announcement without also addressing the opioid epidemic in the country.

“Because the top drug they were stealing was oxycodone,” Milgram said.

Milgram said the drugs in Operation Low Crawl were not fake, but usually it’s hard to tell until it’s too late.

“One pill can kill,” she said. “Never take a pill that wasn’t prescribed to you. If somebody is selling what they claim is an oxy on the street, the likelihood today is that it’s actually fentanyl.”

According to the DEA, pharmacies in the following states were impacted: Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia and Wyoming.