Thieves Eye Pharma Drugs for Millions
Close to $300 billion in prescription drugs are sold in the United States each year, making it a big business that's become a big target for thieves.
In the last year, there have been five major heists, each netting at least $10 million. When a drug warehouse in Virginia was recently robbed, authorities believed it was the act of a major prescription drug theft ring, reports CBS News correspondent Manuel Gallegus.
"They're organized criminal groups that target cargo as their means of income," said Ron Greene of FreightWatch International, a cargo security firm.
Their latest crime, investigators say, is their biggest one yet, a $75 million heist at an Eli Lilly and Company drug warehouse in Enfield, Conn.
The thieves scaled the wall of the warehouse and cut a hole in the roof. With rope, they rappelled to the floor and disabled the alarm.
In a matter of hours, they filled a truck with 48 pallets of popular and expensive drugs, including the anti-depressants Prozac, Cymbalta and Zyprexa, which is used to treat schizophrenics.
"It's clear that our industry is being targeted now, and we need to make sure that we do whatever we can possibly do to keep this thing from happening again in the future," said Bart Peterson, senior vice president for communications at Eli Lilly.
Pharmacy stick-ups and burglaries like one in New York a few months ago are also on the rise. Last year, there were more than 536 hold ups and thefts compared to 367 the year before.
Since 2007, the amount of money lost to pharmaceutical theft has quadrupled from $42 million to $184 million last year.
Experts believe pharmaceuticals are the new street gold.
"The onset of offshore pharmacies, Internet pharmacies, black market pharmacies, it's really driving demand," Greene said.
What worries drug enforcement officials most is that those stolen drugs could end up at local pharmacies. They say it's a real threat to public safety. Stolen drugs often make their way back into the supply chain through crooked wholesalers and those who fail to check where the drugs came from.
"We have seen that these products can make it into pharmacies because we've seen adverse events from patients who bought drugs," said Ilisa Bernstein of the Food and Drug Administration.
Last August, several diabetics turned up in emergency rooms unable to control their blood sugar. It turns out that the insulin they were using had been stolen from the drug maker Novo Nordisk in North Carolina and not been properly refrigerated.
"Thieves don't follow instructions for proper storage, so these products can lose their potency and not work," Bernstein said.
For now there is little drug agents can do to stop it.