Thieves Commandeer Pharmaceutical Delivery Truck and Abduct Driver

Police report of another pharmaceutical shipment hijacked by gunmen.

The Baltimore Sun reports on the story of a pharmaceutical delivery driver who was abducted December 13th while making his deliveries in Baltimore by thieves who made off with a truckload of drug products

Highlights from The Baltimore Sun article include:

• Police called the morning heist “incredibly thought-out,” and were looking for three suspects.

• The 55-year-old driver was forced at gunpoint into the back of his delivery truck and transported to an unknown location where the suspects unloaded about 80 crates of drug products.

• “The value of the drugs is significant,” said Baltimore Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi, who said he could not place a dollar figure. “We believe the individuals responsible might have had knowledge about where and when the truck was going to be.”

• Guglielmi said police were in contact with the local FBI and DEA.

Clearly theft of prescription pharmaceuticals is proliferating given the high value and additional profitability of both the product and their packaging.

Organized criminal gangs are seizing the high profits and relative low risk in the criminal activity of pharmaceutical theft and drug counterfeiting.

The crime is has a double return to the criminal-prescription drugs are a valuable commodity and their packaging, used in the introduction of fraudulent, adulterated or counterfeit goods carries equal significance.

Members of the pharmaceutical supply chain must be on guard to protect their inventories from theft and fraudulent, adulterated, sub-standard and counterfeit drugs.

Consumers need to be made more aware of the prevalence and danger of bogus medications.

To read the entire Baltimore Sun article, visit: http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/crime/blog/2010/12/thieves_commandeer_pharmaceuti.html

To learn more about pharmaceutical supply chain safety solutions, visit: http://www.xstreamsystems.net/

Details on the Memphis Pharmaceutical Distribution Center Hijacking

Two men are in custody, one man still at large in hijacking that occurred early Friday.

According to an article written by Scott Carroll which appeared in the December 19th edition of the Memphis Commercial Appeal:

• Two men are in jail and another remains at large following a hijacking early Friday in which gunmen robbed eight employees and stole vans containing $200,000 worth of pharmaceuticals from a South Memphis distribution center.

• Ralph Jones, 22, and Patrick Dotson, 20, each were charged with eight counts of aggravated robbery, eight counts of aggravated kidnapping and one count of aggravated assault for the robbery of Hackbarth Delivery Service.

• The incident began around 5 a.m., as the loading dock doors were opening. The three gunmen confronted eight Hackbarth employees and demanded money, cell phones and personal items before forcing them to load three company vans with prescription drugs, according to a police affidavit.

• Employees told investigators they were then stripped of their clothes and locked in a fenced area.

• Hidden tracking devices embedded in the pharmaceutical products led police later that day to a house at 1279 College, where they recovered two of the vans and arrested Jones and Dotson.

• Dotson gave a statement of confession to police in which he implicated Jones, police said. Both are being held on bonds of $1 million.

• A Memphis Police Department spokesman said no information on the third gunman, who is still at large, was available Saturday.

The value of pharmaceutical drugs as both a high value commodity for their contents and for their packaging-which is used in drug counterfeiting-has made the theft of prescription drugs one of the more profitable and prolific crimes of the 21st century.

Consumers need to be made aware of the danger that this crime imposes on their safety and buy and consume medications only from known legitimate health care professionals.

Members of the supply chain need to take proactive measures to protect their inventories from theft, adulteration, fraud, sub-standard and counterfeit drugs.

To read the entire Commercial Appeal article, visit: http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2010/dec/19/2-charged-in-theft-of-vans-full-of-drugs/

To learn about pharmaceutical anti-counterfeiting solutions, visit: http://www.xstreamsystems.net/