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Tonya Papanikolas ReportingFederal and local officials together busted a prescription drug ring. Police say the head of that ring worked in a doctor's office and was using her position to distribute the drugs.
The drug is hydrocodone, used as a painkiller. Drug agents say hydrocodone is now the most widely abused prescription drug because it's easier to get than, say, Oxycontin.
Twenty-four-year-old Cathryn Sue Ballard worked at a local doctor's office as a secretary. Police say, over a 15-month period, she used the doctor's DEA number without permission to give out more than 400 illegal prescriptions for hydrocodone, a painkiller that includes lortab and vicodin.
After a while, a pharmacist at a Midvale Smith's store noticed one young girl kept coming in with prescriptions for the drug. The pharmacist thought the girl looked healthy so she called the doctor and the doctor found out what was happening.
Midvale police and the DEA started investigating. Police have since identified about 50 individuals involved in the drug ring and they've filed charges against 16 of them.
All together, the suspects got more than 25-thousand hydrocodone tables from Ballard.
Det. Scott Nesbitt, Midvale Police: "There are people that picked up several in one day from several different pharmacies. So, like one suspect in this case got 49 prescriptions, just one person."
David Yocom, Salt Lake County District Attorney: "Most of them are in their late 20s or early 30s, so this is an area that people don't usually think of as the drug-addicted abuser."
The suspects were getting a bottle of 60 pills with each prescription. At least a few of them were selling the tablets for five dollars on the streets.
Ballard faces federal charges, to which she's pleaded not guilty. The others face state charges.
