EKB News

A federal, state and local effort to address the problem of out-of-state prescription medications has resulted in federal indictments for 12 individuals and arrest warrants by Operation UNITE for 103 street-level dealers. Yesterday we broke the story of Operation UNITE’s multi County Round-up in which UNITE officials stated that their focus was on prescription medication. Today officials are touting the round-up as a success as 63 people were taken into custody as of yesterday evening. Among those arrested on federal charges were two licensed pharmacists ­ Dan Daffron, owner of the Quick Script Pharmacy in Monticello, and D. Greg Jones of Richmond, who operates Rx Express in Russell, Kentucky, near Ashland. Both face multiple charges of unlawful distribution of controlled narcotics. UNITE targeted street-level dealers in 11 counties on Monday, but officials note that problems exist everywhere. The attempt to arrest street-level dealers began at 8 a.m. from five locations across the Fifth Congressional District. Most of those wanted are believed to have received prescription medications ­ primarily OxyContin, Lortab and Methadone ­ from out-of-state distributors. Several of the cases resulted in arrests for the sale of marijuana.