by KYW's Mike DeNardo
Sixteen men have been charged with burglarizing more than 45 mom-and-pop pharmacies -- from Wilkes-Barre, Pa., to Delaware, to the Jersey shore.
The feds say the burglars would pick small pharmacies because the security was easier to break.
According to authorities, they would crowbar open the door, cut the phone lines, disable the alarm systems, and then wait to see whether police would respond.
Once the coast was clear, they went in -- and US attorney Patrick Meehan says that once inside, they knew what to go after:
"They stole a variety of controlled substances including Oxycontin, Percocet, Valium, morphine, methadone, Xanax. These dangerous narcotics, which we estimate had a street value in excess of $3 million, were then sold on the streets of the City of Philadelphia."
Meehan says one of the defendants is charged with distributing prescription drugs to an undercover agent from a Mr. Softee truck in a Northwest Philadelphia parking lot:
"Out of the Mister Softee truck, the guy who was just a few minutes earlier giving out ice cream cones was giving out Oxycontin."
The defendants are also charged with burglarizing a central Pennsylvania gun shop, stealing 180 guns, filing off the serial numbers, then reselling them.
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