Fort Smith police nab 28 suspects in illegal prescription drug sales

FORT SMITH - Police arrested 28 people Thursday, suspected of being part of a network that illegally sold prescription drugs.

A news release from the Fort Smith Police Department said 80 felony warrants were issued against 45 people believed to be involved in the ring. Police continue searching for the 17 people not yet arrested.

Nearly 150 others not named in arrest warrants were identified as suspected abusers and illicit distributors of prescription medications, the release said.

The arrests capped a 13-month investigation, dubbed Operation River Valley Pharming, by the Police Department's narcotics division with help from the Arkansas State Police.

"This is a big network," police spokesman Sgt. Levi Risley said. "They knew when people were going in for medication and would make arrangements to go in and buy them [from those people] the next day."

Sometimes, undercover officers and confidential sources purchased the drugs in pharmacy or doctor office parking lots. Others were made at residences, on the streets and once in a church.

Several officers from local, state and federal agencies formed arrest teams that fanned out through the area beginning at 8 a.m. Thursday to round up those charged.

Risley said those arrested were charged with one or more counts of delivery of metham- phetamine, delivery of oxycodone, delivery of marijuana, delivery of diazapam, delivery of hydrocodone, delivery of Ecstasy and delivery of Dilaudid.

There were no doctors or pharmacists among those arrested Thursday, Risley said.

Risley said narcotics officers investigating illegal prescription drug sales found the transactions were being made as part of a complex network.

"All these people are linked in some way," Risley said.

In many cases, the person obtaining the prescription medication was doing so legally, he said. In other cases, persons feigned illness in order to receive prescriptions for pain medication.

They would sell the medication for a large profit. A typical oxycodone prescription filled on a Medicaid or Medicare account would cost the patient $7 to $10. The pills sold individually would net the seller $250 to $500 profit, according to the news release.

The Police Department spent $8,500 on undercover drug buys during the investigation, and the state police spent $1,500 of its drug-buy funds, the release said.

According to the release, the police operation is being done in phases.

The first phase ended Thursday. The second phase will focus on programs to assist families struggling with abuse of prescription drugs.

The third phase will go after the mid- and upper-level distributors and any health-care professionals that are violating the law, Risley said.

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