BEFORE DRUG BUST, PILL ABUSE TAKES TOLL

Drug-Related Deaths Claimed Some Suspects in the Pinellas Drug
Ring

The investigation started last summer.

Detectives uncovered a sophisticated drug syndicate that dispatched
hundreds of "runners" into pharmacies to use forged prescriptions to
get pills.

Over the course of several months, deputies obtained arrest warrants
for 94 people as they sought to bring down an organization responsible
for trafficking at least $4 million in pills.

But by the time they started arresting people in a sweep on Tuesday,
five of the people they were looking for had died.

Pinellas deputies said all five deaths appear to be prescription
drug-related and are another indication of how dangerous the
prescription drug abuse problem has become.

"This speaks volumes," said sheriff's spokeswoman Cecilia Barreda.
"Here we are, having these persons on a list as a suspect in a case
.. and along the way they died of the very issue we were going to be
arresting them for."

Anthony Lindsey, 24, was one of the five who died before authorities
could arrest him.

After struggling with an addiction to painkillers, he stayed with his
mother for five weeks in Fort Myers, then returned to Palm Harbor
sober, said his grandmother Donna Weldon, 77. Three days later,
Lindsey was found at a friend's house dead of an accidental overdose
of oxycodone and Xanax. A medical examiner's report showed that
Lindsey's friend had a prescription filled the night before. Of 210
oxycodone and 90 Xanax pills, only 70 of each were left.

The Sheriff's Office said Tuesday that four of the five died of
possible prescription overdoses, though the St. Petersburg Times had
previously reported that one of those named - 41-year-old Karen E.
Boggs - was killed in a hit-and-run accident in October. The
discrepancy could not be accounted for Tuesday.

The others, besides Lindsey, said to have possibly overdosed were
Herman Allen, 36, of New Port Richey and Diane Calico, 38, of Hudson.
Autopsies for them are pending. The fifth death was Ryan Jones, 21, of
Holiday, who shot himself after writing a note that indicated he could
no longer cope with his addiction, sheriff's officials said.

Nearly 2,500 people died of prescription drug overdoses in Florida in
2009, the last year data is available. Nearly 700 of those deaths
occurred in Pinellas, Hillsborough, Pasco and Hernando counties.

The alarming increase in deaths has prompted law enforcement agencies
to launch investigations like the one announced Tuesday.

Capt. Robert Alfonso, head of the sheriff's narcotics division, said
two or three people ran the scheme by creating fake prescriptions that
were distributed to a handful of other people, who recruited others to
fill the prescriptions. More than 700 people may have been involved in
all.

Outside of the five deaths, the sheriff's Diversion Task Force had
found 49 of the 94 people they were seeking to arrest. They were still
looking for 40 people late Tuesday. The majority are accused of
passing fraudulent prescriptions. The arrests were the culmination of
an investigation dubbed Operation No Appointment Necessary. Detectives
identified 27 doctors whose names were being used by the drug ring,
Alfonso said. The doctors, who had their prescription pads stolen or
fraudulently duplicated, cooperated with investigators.

The crackdown came just a day after a federal agency announced Florida
distributed more than a half-billion doses of oxycodone in 2009 -
twice as many as the next closest state, Pennsylvania, and up 25
percent from the previous year.

Law enforcement officials say a prescription drug monitoring program
could slow pills from flowing into the wrong hands. Last month, Gov.
Rick Scott called on the Legislature to repeal a 2009 law mandating a
monitoring program that was set to begin in December but has been
hampered by delays. Advocates say the program could help decrease the
number of overdoses by curbing the supply on the street.

Weldon said she didn't know about the state's prescription drug
problem until she looked it up on the Internet after her grandson
died. "I was floored," she said. She experienced another wake-up call
at his memorial service when the pastor asked if any of his friends
were also struggling with addiction. "Fifteen kids went up after the
service and said they needed help."