pharmacy tech arrested for trafficking drugs through Walgreen’s drive-thru

 LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) - A former pharmacy technician at a Louisville Walgreens has been arrested after police say she illegally distributed drugs through the pharmacy’s drive-thru.

Mellany Rodriguez was arrested Monday for the crimes that police say happened between May and August 2022. Rodriguez was working at Walgreens on S. 3rd Street during that time.

According to arrest documents, an internal investigation began after it was discovered that more than 21,000 schedule II drug doses were missing from that Walgreens store.

After looking through surveillance footage, Rodriguez was spotted deleting prescriptions that had already been filled from the pharmacy’s computer system and then handing them out to people in the Walgreens drive-thru who didn’t order those prescriptions.

Records say surveillance footage and deletion reports showed that Rodriguez was likely responsible for 3,060 missing doses from the pharmacy, totaling $5,421.60. It’s not clear from the arrest report what happened to the other 18,000 doses that went missing.

Rodriguez is now being held at Metro Corrections on charges of unlawful access to a computer, theft by unlawful taking or disposition of a controlled substance, trafficking of a controlled substance and criminal falsification of medical records.

All are felonies.

By Ward Jolles

wave3.com