A Utah pharmacist targeted in a large scale prescription drug fraud operation scheme involving rapper NBA YoungBoy said they didn’t execute the purchase due to many red flags.
Pharmacist Erik Stewart of Reed’s Pharmacy in Hyrum, Utah, whose team was targeted last September, shared his experience with KUTV News.
He said one of the red flags was the pharmacy receiving a call from a doctor (using the credentials of a Provo doctor), calling in the prescription, which was the first red flag.
“Usually, you don’t get a doctor calling in cough syrup themselves. That’ll be like a nurse or something, but then, just their medical terminology was off the quantity,” he explained.
He also noted that the verbiage in pronouncing prescription requests was another red flag. “The way they pronounced the things—everything was suspicious,” he added.
According to arrest documents, multiple pharmacies in Utah were also targets. The 24-year-old rapper, whose real name is Kentrell Gaulden, was accused of using real doctors’ names, giving them a combination of fake patients information, impersonating elderly patients, and sending individuals to pick up the medicine, mostly promethazine with codeine and antibiotic doxycycline.
Utah authorities along the federal authorities were involved in investigation for months, according to Cache County authorities, before a search warrant was issued at the rapper’s home in Weber County, Utah. The Baton-Rouge, LA rapper’s arrest by Cache County Sheriff’s Office on Tuesday.
Gaulden’s whose been under house arrest in Utah since 2021, is facing 63 charges related to conducting a fraud ring involving prescription thefts at Utah pharmacies, according to Cache County Government. No bail is set.
His trial for the federal charge is set to begin on July 15th.