L.A.-to-Mexico prescription drug ring busted, authorities say

August 19, 2011 | 5:46pm

Fifteen people -- including a physician, a pharmacy manager and several gang members -- have been arrested in an unusual alleged drug conspiracy: smuggling prescription medications obtained in Los Angeles into Mexico.

Among the arrestees was Tyron Reece, an Inglewood physician who admitted regularly writing fraudulent prescriptions for 100 tablets each of three commonly abused medications, including hydrocodone, a powerful painkiller, according to an affidavit filed in federal court in support of a search warrant.

Reece also gave investigators lists of names of purported patients for whom he wrote the phony prescriptions, the affidavit said. He sold the phony prescriptions in exchange for $60 cash, according to an indictment filed in federal court.

The ring, allegedly organized by Anthony Wright, 67, filled the prescriptions at Dabney's Pharmacy in South Los Angeles and smuggled them for more than a year to pharmacies in Tijuana. Wright also was charged with conspiracy to distribute controlled substances but remained at large Friday, officials said.


“It was a unique kind of smuggling operation, one that we haven't seen," said Lauren Mack, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement, which was involved in the operation along with the California attorney general's office and other agencies.

"We normally see people going to Mexico buying the pharmaceuticals over there and trying to bring them back to the U.S. to sell here," Mack said. "It was unique that this was a case where drugs were actually being taken into Mexico."

She said the pills were then sold for $7 to $10 each to people who traveled to Tijuana from the U.S. to feed their addictions.

“There's really not a market for those kinds of pain pills for people who live in Mexico,â€