Georgia Rx coughs up Beaufort County arrest

Published 9:16 pm Friday, February 1, 2013

 

A Kentucky woman who received a prescription for controlled substances at a clinic in Georgia was arrested by Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office Drug Unit investigators on Monday.

Investigators, diversion officer Greg Rowe, along with K-9 Elza, the unit’s drug-detecting dog, were called out to Walgreens in reference to a suspicious prescription, said a press release from the drug unit.

K-9 Elza alerted on the back passenger door of a vehicle with Kentucky tags, while Rowe questioned the woman about the prescription, said the release. The release also said a search of the vehicle turned up a plastic bag containing methamphetamine and three dosages of codeine phosphate, an opioid, in the floorboard behind the passenger’s seat.

Elisa Kirby, 48, a resident of Kentucky, was charged with possession of methamphetamine, possession of a schedule II controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia. She was detained at the Beaufort County jail under a $20,000 secured bond.

A spokesman for the drug unit said this is the fourth such arrest investigators have made recently. A month ago, three others were arrested.

“They had the address of every pharmacy in eastern North Carolina in their GPS,” he said.

Suspects might get their prescriptions from out of state pain clinics under investigation by other agencies, but that information does find its way to local narcotics units, he added.