Malvern Police arrest man in suspected prescription scam

MALVERN, AR - A lesson to would-be criminals: Malvern is not the best place to forge a prescription. Just ask one of Hot Spring County's newest inmates, Charles Allen McLittle of Little Rock.

"He was just making his rounds is what it looks like," Detective Dan Ussery of the Malvern Police Department said.

Police say McLittle dropped off these forged prescriptions for Roxicodone, a generic form of OxyContin, at four pharmacies in Malvern - Walmart, Fred's, Walgreens and USA Drug.

"Usually they think they can get away with it once and they're not gonna risk coming back so that's why they move from one to the next," Ussery said.

Police say McLittle got the pills at Walmart and Fred's. Thanks to a suspicious pharmacist, police arrested him at USA Drug and he never made it back to Walgreens.

It's a scam police like detective Wssery have seen a lot more of lately.

"At least ten or fifteen cases this year of similar activity going on,” Ussery said. “It's higher than in recent years."

And that doesn't just go for Malvern. U.S. attorney Chris Thyer recently announced 23 arrests stemming from operation big 80's. Thyer says all of these people were involved in a prescription drug conspiracy.

"Once the pills were in their possession, they were sold on the street to our children," Thyer said.

And that's the big picture. If someone like Charles McLittle gets hundreds of powerful pain killers, whose hands do they end up in next?