SEBASTIAN — Police investigators said they uncovered a criminal enterprise involving ill-gotten prescription drugs, out-of-state pill smuggling and stolen auto parts when they searched a home last weekend.

Investigators spent 30 hours searching an undisclosed home late Friday and most of Saturday, said Sebastian Officer Steve Marcinik, police spokesman. Eight investigators recovered more than 3,000 pills with a street value of $60,000, as well as $6,500 worth of stolen property and $4,500 cash, investigators said.

“This shows a direct link between theft and the illegal prescription drug business,” Marcinik said.
(more…)

FORT PIERCE — A woman was arrested after a tip to sheriff’s investigators that she was “forcing” her unlicensed 17-year-old daughter to drive her to buy drugs, according to a recently released affidavit.

A sheriff’s deputy who got behind the vehicle, a tan Ford van, on Wednesday as it traveled along U.S. 1, said he spied a clear plastic bag being thrown from the passenger window. (more…)

When the Martin County Commission fired Duncan Ballantyne from his $147,250 a year job as county administrator on St. Patrick’s Day, a pot of gold awaited the seasoned bureaucrat.

For starters, Ballantyne remained on the county payroll for a month after he cleaned out his office because he was entitled to a 30-day notice of his termination.

Since his official last day on April 23, Ballantyne has collected a total of $84,451 as a result of the severance package he negotiated when he was hired in the fall of 2005, county records show. And his initial severance period doesn’t end until Aug. 23.

Ballantyne’s severance package is not unusual for local government managers and attorneys on the Treasure Coast. In fact, 13 local government managers and attorneys in Martin, St. Lucie and Indian River counties are entitled to severance pay for six months, or longer, if they are fired without cause. (more…)

Asked whether he was growing marijuana, Oulay Inthaphone reportedly told sheriff’s investigators he was growing “a plant” for a school project.

Deputies ended up actually recovering two plants, some marijuana “blunts,” about a dozen Ecstasy pills and a pipe, according to an arrest affidavit released Thursday.

Deputies on Wednesday night went to a unit in Harbour Isle West and contacted Inthaphone following an anonymous complaint that marijuana was growing there.

“I told him the reason we were there and asked him if he was growing marijuana,” the affidavit states. “He said he was growing a plant for a school project.”

Inthaphone showed sheriff’s officials where two plants were growing, and investigators also turned up about 12 Ecstasy pills.

Inthaphone allegedly admitted growing the marijuana and bringing the Ecstasy from Michigan.

He faces felony charges of cultivation of marijuana and possession of a controlled substance/MDMA and a misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia charge.

By Will Greenlee, TCPalm.com

FORT PIERCE — After an officer pulled cocaine from Bobby L. Burgess’ pants pocket, the 44-year-old local man said he was wearing his son’s trousers.

But that revelation did not keep Burgess out of jail following a Monday morning police encounter.
(more…)

A former Walgreens pharmacy technician has been arrested after police say she befriended an elderly woman and then stole credit cards and prescription drugs from her.
St. Lucie County Sheriff’s officials have charged Melissa Dewey of Bella Vista Way in Port St. Lucie with multiple crimes including grand theft from the elderly, trafficking in oxycondone and fraudulent use of ID and credit card.
They say Dewey first ingratiated herself to Dianne Birnbaum about six months ago when Birnbaum called her Walgreens pharmacy requesting if the drug store made home deliveries.

Birnbaum told investigators Dewey, a pharmacy technician, answered the phone, told Birnbaum that Walgrees does not make deliveries, but offered to drop off Birnbaum’s Xanax prescription on her way home. (more…)

Two separate arrests involving oxycodone pills were made in St. Lucie County Friday.

Matthew Joseph Elka, 20, of the 2000 block of Southeast Eatonville Street, is suspected of trafficking oxycodone, according to an arrest affidavit from the Port St. Lucie Police Department released Sunday.

The report states a confidential informant told police Elka was selling oxycodone. On Friday, an undercover officer allegedly bought 20 pills from Elka for $140 at a Cumberland Farms store near Lennard Road. Elka is in the St. Lucie County Jail on $75,000 bond. (more…)

Genelle L. Trefelner, admitted to pilfering pills.

A Fort Pierce woman was arrested after she admitted she had been pilfering pills from a Walgreens where she worked as a pharmacy tech, deputies say.

On Thursday St. Lucie County Sheriff’s deputies were called to a Walgreens in the 2500 block of Virginia Avenue, where a loss prevention officer said she had been interviewing 30-year-old Genelle L. Trefelner about the missing pills.

According to deputies, Trefelner stole more than 3,000 pills of 2210 hydrocodone, oxycodone, and aprazolam, also known as Xanax. (more…)