Former Pharmacy Technician Pleads Guilty to Prescription Fraud, Stealing over 50,000 Dosage Units

A Virginia Beach man pleaded guilty on 8/12/21 to acquiring over 50,000 dosage units of prescription medications through fraudulent means.

“Pharmacy technicians are entrusted with safeguarding and maintaining prescription medications in a responsible manner,” said Raj Parekh, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. “This defendant did the opposite. He stole a large supply of prescription medications from a hospital that were intended for the treatment of deserving patients. As this case demonstrates, those who masquerade as health care professionals and abuse their trusted positions will be prosecuted in the Eastern District of Virginia.”

According to court documents, Justin Feliciano Agloro, 40, a former licensed pharmacy technician at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, had the role of ensuring that the hospital’s controlled substance distribution system, a machine known as an Omnicell, was filled with the correct amounts of various controlled substances. From April 2018 to October 2019, Agloro executed a scheme by which he would steal controlled substances and falsify the Omnicell records to cover his theft. In this manner, Agloro was able to steal a variety of prescription medications, including thousands of prescription opioid pills and other medications.

According to court records, the supervising pharmacist and an Omnicell technician uncovered Agloro’s fraudulent scheme when he was on personal leave from the hospital. Agloro avoided camera systems and successfully intercepted daily Omnicell reports that would have confirmed his diversion of controlled substances while on duty at the hospital. Agloro also removed reports related to cabinets from which he had diverted controlled substances and replaced them with ones from cabinets he had not accessed or from which he had not diverted controlled substances. In total, Agloro stole over 50,000 units of controlled substances.

Agloro is scheduled to be sentenced on December 17, 2021. He faces a maximum penalty of four years in prison. Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after taking into account the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.