DRUGGIST HELD IN BROWARD `PILL MILL' CASE

A former Coral Springs pharmacist has been arrested at his home in a
nudist resort, indicted by a federal grand jury for allegedly doling
out thousands of painkillers, depressants and sleeping pills which may
have resulted in the deaths of at least four South Florida residents.

Donald Arneson's Friday arrest was part of a sweeping 287-count
indictment and ties the former pharmacist to Barbara Mazzella, the
Coral Springs doctor suspected in as many as 12 South Florida deaths.
Federal agents say Mazzella, 61, arrested April 1 in a highly
publicized raid, wrote the prescriptions that Arneson filled.

Also indicted Friday was office assistant Barbara Garafola, 54, who
kept the books at Mazzella's nondescript office in a West Sample Road
strip mall. Prosecutors charge that Garafola, together with Mazzella,
submitted numerous false Medicare claims, collecting money for
procedures Mazzella never performed.

Together, the three ran one of the busiest pill mills in the nation,
federal agents said.

The 12 deaths the trio have been tied to -- patients who died of drug
overdoses or committed suicide -- are identified in the indictment by
their initials only.

Arneson, 57, was denied bail Friday morning and remains in federal
custody, facing 51 counts of illegally distributing controlled substances.

Mazzella, whose medical license was revoked in late May, has been in
Miami's federal detention center since she was first arrested in
April. The new indictment replaces the lesser charges she initially
faced.

"It does not in any way affect her innocence," attorney Bruce Zimet
said. "I guess they're thinking if you throw enough stuff against the
wall, something will stick."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Nicholson, who will prosecute the case,
was in court Friday afternoon and could not be reached for comment.

DEA agents said they began investigating Mazzella four years ago after
receiving complaints from local pharmacists about the volume of
Mazzella's prescriptions for powerful drugs including the narcotics
Percocet and Tuinal, and the depressants Valium and Seconal.

When drugstores stopped filling Mazzella's prescriptions, the
government says she recruited Arneson, who set up shop inside her
office in January 1997. Arneson ran Don's Clinic Pharmacy, which
stocked the drugs Mazzella prescribed. Patients could walk in and pay
$100 cash to receive a prescription and could buy the pills at
Arneson's shop.

The stakes are higher for both Mazzella and Arneson now that
prosecutors have tied the prescriptions to at least 12 deaths. If
convicted, both Mazzella and Arneson could spend life in prison.

According to the indictment, Arneson also stands to forfeit his home
in Pompano Beach and his condominium unit at the nudist Paradise Lakes
Resort and Condominiums in Lutz, Fla., where he was arrested Friday.

Official records from the state Board of Pharmacy were not immediately
available Friday, but a staff member estimated Arneson earned his
pharmaceutical license in the mid-to late-1970s, based on his license
number.