15 indicted for drug ring involving forged prescriptions that put 5,000 pills on the street

Sweeping indictments have been issued by the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor in the search for 14 people involved in an illegal prescription drug ring that took place between December 2012 and October 2014.

Police have already arrested James Decore in connection with the prescription drug ring that prosecutors sad put more than 5,000 pills on the street.

The prosecutor said those involved would obtain blank prescription pads and use fictional names to send partners into pharmacies to get the drugs.

Police said Heather Mitchell orchestrated the illegal operation by posing as a police officer by phone. Prosecutors said Mitchell would call doctors' offices claiming she was an investigator to get physicians' DEA numbers.

Assistant Prosecutors James Gutierrez told NewsChannel5 Mitchell and others would use stolen prescription pads and the doctors' DEA numbers to obtain the drugs.

"She would pose as a patient when she would call doctors offices when she'd try to get information too," said Gutierrez. "You need a DEA number as well as the prescription, the paper itself. She would have people actually go into doctors offices to steal prescriptions themselves. In fact she would steal prescriptions."

Gutierrez gave major credit to the Westshore Enforcement Bureau for helping to coordinate the investigation which involved police agencies in several northeast Ohio counties.

The sweeping indictment includes 206 counts and arrest warrants have been issued for the other 14 people involved.

Published by newsnet5.com

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