Louisiana Clinic Worker Arrested in Prescription Drug Scheme

Baton Rouge police have arrested one man accused of being part of a prescription drug ring in which more than 200 fraudulent prescriptions for the powerful pain-killing drugs oxycodone and hydrocodone from a Baton Rouge, La., clinic.

The Advocate reports Benjamin Landry, 40, of Plaquemine, was booked Friday on counts of racketeering and distribution and manufacturing of Schedule II drugs.

According to the arrest warrant, Landry and eight other people filled 232 forged prescriptions and exchanged the drugs for money.

The investigation began when a local pharmacy faxed a copy of a prescription to the clinic for verification on Dec. 2. The warrant says the doctor at the clinic realized he never wrote that prescription.

Clinic administrators contacted deputies, who asked the doctor to run an audit report of all prescriptions filled using his Drug Enforcement Administration number, the warrant says.

The DEA uses those numbers to track prescription medications, according to the DEA’s website.

The audit showed 232 prescriptions the doctor said he never wrote, the warrant says.

Deputies used the state Board of Pharmacy’s website to locate the pharmacies where the prescriptions were filled, then subpoenaed the records for each prescription, the warrant says.

One person investigators questioned who was a patient at the clinic on two separate occasions said he met Landry through a friend in 2012.

The man, whose name is one of several blacked out, said he told Landry he had back problems and Landry invited him to visit the clinic, where he was prescribed Lortab for his pain.

In a subsequent meeting between the two, Landry said he would pay the man $1,000 if he would fill prescriptions written to him, then bring the pills to Landry.