According to the Miami Herald, thousands of narcotic pills, including oxycodone and hydrocodone were stolen and unaccounted for at the Broward County Office of the Medical Examiner and Trauma Services.
The report, based on an investigation launched in November, alleges that employees at the Medical Examiner’s Office have long mismanaged medical inventory, and failed to ensure that medications were properly secured, cataloged and destroyed — allowing at least one former supervisor to openly steal narcotics.
The medications were seized by the Medical Examiner’s Office, which collects all prescription drugs belonging to a dead person as part of its investigation into all violent, suspicious, unnatural and unattended deaths.
Trafficking in both oxycodone and hydrocodone carry stiff mandatory prison terms as required by Florida law. Even simple possession of either substance is a felony punishable by up to 5 years in prison.
Eric Matheny can be reached at (305) 504-6655 for all Miami-Dade and Broward criminal matters.