By T. Scott Boatright
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration on Tuesday morning executed search warrants on two Ruston doctor’s offices as well as a local pharmacy.
DEA officials confirmed that agents served the search warrants on the offices of Lincoln Community Health Center physicians Dr. Allen Herbert and Dr. Mike Belue and The Prescription Shoppe Pharmacy.
The Lincoln Community Health Center is located at 1140 South Vienna St. in Ruston while The Prescription Shoppe is located at 104 West Line Ave.
No further information as to why the warrants were executed as made available from the DEA.
Some customers of The Prescription Shoppe reported the searches on social media Tuesday, with one saying they went to get prescriptions filled around 10:30 a.m. and found employees standing outside the building as the search was being conducted and telling customers that `the pharmacy would be closed two hours “for inspection.”
Another social media post reported that the agents were dressed in plain clothes but had visible handcuffs on their person and were carrying cardboard boxes labeled “DEA” that were presumably used to collect evidence such as patient files.
No charges had been filed in the ongoing investigation as of Tuesday night and Herbert, Belue and The Prescription Shoppe are expected to be operating as normal today.
According to the DEA’s website, it’s mission statement is “to enforce the controlled substances laws and regulations of the United States and bring to the criminal and civil justice system of the United States, or any other competent jurisdiction, those organizations and principal members of organizations, involved in the growing, manufacture, or distribution of controlled substances appearing in or destined for illicit traffic in the United States; and to recommend and support non-enforcement programs aimed at reducing the availability of illicit controlled substances on the domestic and international markets.”
