May 21, 2013
A 66-year old nurse practitioner has been charged with forging prescriptions in an elaborate scheme to buy thousands of doses of the drugs.
Phil Price, who is commander of the Cherokee County Multi-Agency Narcotics Squad reports that Kathryn Shoemaker used a variety of different doctors' names to obtain 8,000 doses of medication.
He said Shoemaker had the technical knowledge needed to create the fake prescriptions for Xanax, Percocet, and hydrocodone on a computer. Shoemaker recruited runners to buy the drugs.
Price estimated the street value of the drugs is about $120,000.
Authorities have arrested a dozen other people in the case.
