Woman charged with passing off fake prescriptions for OxyContin at St. Lucie County CVS

ST. LUCIE COUNTY, Fla. — Sabrina Combs and others donned medical scrubs, posing as home health care nurses to pick up medicine for patients.

They used the identities of those with insurance -- including a retired DEA agent -- to minimize the cost of medication.

Combs, 39, was arrested Tuesday on more than 20 charges stemming from incidents at St. Lucie County pharmacies beginning in at least 2008, according to records released Wednesday. Combs is accused of passing fraudulent prescriptions for the powerful painkiller OxyContin at area CVS and Walgreens businesses.

A St. Lucie County Sheriff's investigator was working since 2008 with a Palm Beach County Sheriff's detective on an "organized prescription fraud ring from the Miami area." The Palm Beach County detective arrested Combs in connection with a trafficking in oxycodone case.

"Combs got out of jail and she has continued passing fraudulent prescriptions across Florida," a warrant application states. "We have found (where) Combs has passed fraudulent prescriptions from Miami to Orlando on the east coast and in Collier County on the west coast."

Combs, of Miami, used a person's name, address, birth date and insurance information to get the fraudulent prescriptions, also using an unknowing doctor's information. She dressed in scrubs and acted like a home health care nurse getting prescriptions for patients.

In one of the instances, Combs is accused of passing three fraudulent prescriptions for OxyContin between December 2008 and May 2009 at a CVS in the 2200 block of South U.S. 1 in Fort Pierce.

One of those prescriptions was from a hospital in Miami and was in the name of a retired supervisory DEA agent, according to records and a sheriff's official. The retired DEA agent told a sheriff's investigator he hasn't been to any CVS pharmacies in St. Lucie County, nor did he get OxyContin. The retired DEA agent said several bogus prescriptions for OxyContin have been passed in his name in South Florida.

Sheriff's officials are investigating how Combs got the personal information used in committing the fraud, a sheriff's official said.

Combs was arrested on charges including several counts each of trafficking in oxycodone 14 to 28 grams, criminal use of personal ID and obtaining or attempting to obtain a controlled substance by fraud.

Combs, listed as unemployed, was held Wednesday on no bond in the St. Lucie County jail, a jail official said.