Five men, including the alleged mastermind, live in Hernando County; one suspect still at large
LECANTO –
Seven people are behind bars and one woman is still at large in connection with a pharmaceutical fraud case – one of the largest ever for Citrus County, authorities said.
Five of the suspects, including the alleged ring leader, live in Hernando County.
Jeffrey A. Ware, 33, of 11224 Snow Lark Ave. in Brooksville, was arrested Tuesday on 16 drug and racketeering charges. His bond was set at more than $4.2 million.
“He could get a life sentence,” said Detective Kenny Wear, who headed the investigation for the Citrus County Sheriff’s Office.
“When you’re looking at this type of sentence, chances are you don’t want to stick around,” Wear said, explaining why a judge sustained the recommended bond amount for the lead suspect.
Ware was the “brains” behind the operation and a possible flight risk, the detective said.
The investigation began in May, when two of the eight suspects were first suspected of submitting a fraudulent prescription for oxycodone at a Citrus pharmacy.
The case, authorities said, took shape further in August when Ware and two others were caught carrying out a similar scam at a pharmacy in Lady Lake.
Rebecca Brush and James E. Guenther were approached by Lady Lake police after a pharmacist contacted authorities about a possible fraudulent prescription.
A black Dodge pickup, driven by Ware, returned to the parking lot of the pharmacy to pick up Brush and Guenther and the driver was confronted by a police officer.
Ware denied any involvement and said the pills in his truck were prescribed by his doctor, police said.
Police also discovered 76 false prescription forms in Ware’s vehicle and a small black container on his key ring that contained oxycodone, according to an arrest report.
Ware’s 5-year-old son was in the backseat of the vehicle when he was arrested, police said.
“He got scared,” Wear said of the lead suspect after that arrest. “That’s when he backed off.”
Guenther, 25, of 7239 Centerwood Ave. in Spring Hill, was among the eight people charged in the Citrus County case earlier this week.
The others are William C. Volker, Peter M. Kelley, Curtis L. Keith, Jeremy J. Newcomer and Michael T. Brush.
The eighth suspect, Destiny Williams, 19, of Seminole, is still at large.
Heather Yates, a Citrus County Sheriff’s spokeswoman, could not confirm Michael Brush’s relationship with Rebecca Brush, who was arrested in Lady Lake in August. The latter is not believed to be directly involved in the Citrus case.
Detective Wear said the case stretches to other jurisdictions and other agencies are investigating.
The Hernando County Sheriff’s Office’s only known involvement was to arrest those suspects who live in the county, said Lt. Cinda Moore, a sheriff’s spokeswoman.
Wear mentioned Lake, Hillsborough and Pinellas counties during a media conference Wednesday and said the drug ring might have spilled even further south. His investigation is ongoing, he said.
Volker and Newcomer are from Spring Hill. Keith is from Brooksville.
One of Ware’s tactics was to use the names of local doctors on the prescription drug forms and call the pharmacies posing as those doctors, authorities said.
He would pay his associates who acquired the drugs with either money or pills, detectives said.
Ware’s wife, Jackie, called the bond amount “outrageous” and said the charges against her husband were “bogus.”
“He’s a very loving father,” she said. “He’s not a criminal.”
His two racketeering, or RICO, charges were filed because he was the suspected leader in an ongoing criminal enterprise, Wear said.
Capt. Mike Richie, who heads the unit in Citrus County that investigated the case, said Wear and the other detectives waded through months of “time-consuming and tedious work” to make the arrests.
“For our agency, it was probably the largest prescription fraud case we’ve come across,” Richie said.
Reporter Tony Holt can be reached at 352-544-5283 or [email protected].
