HUMBOLDT PARK — A pair of former Humboldt Park pharmacy technicians have been sentenced to prison for stealing 56,000 opioid pills and then selling them outside the pharmacy.
Elizabeth Cruz and Jacqueline Green worked at Allcare Discount Pharmacy at 2750 W. North Ave. The two conspired to steal and sell the opioids from October 2015 to December 2017, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Together Cruz and Green stole approximately 56,108 pills of hydrocodone. They made $10,800 off the stolen pills, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The Chicago Field Division of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration conducted an investigation and found that Cruz falsified the pharmacy’s inventory to make it look like the pills hadn’t been received or dispensed.
Earlier this year Cruz, 35, of Stone Park, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to possess a controlled substance with the intent to deliver. On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Ronald A. Guzman sentenced her to five years in prison.
Also on Wednesday Judge Guzman sentenced Green, of Chicago, to a year and a day in federal prison.
“When trusted pharmacy employees illegally divert powerful and addictive pain medications for misuse, they put individuals and their families at increased risk of drug dependence and overdose,” Robert J. Bell, special agent-in-charge of the DEA Chicago Field Division said in a news release.
Bell added that “this strong prison sentence is recognition of the seriousness of the opioid crisis.”
“The DEA will continue to aggressively bring all resources to bear, unilaterally and in cooperation with prosecutors and law enforcement partners, to save lives in the midst of the opioid epidemic.”
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