What Happened
Krista Federer, a pharmacy technician at a Twin Falls, Idaho pharmacy, stole bottles of Schedule II painkillers from pharmacy stock and sold them to a buyer outside the pharmacy, outside any legitimate prescription.
According to her plea agreement, Federer arranged the sales by text message and then placed the stolen pill bottles in the glove box of her car, parked in the pharmacy lot, where the buyer retrieved the drugs and left payment. On October 6, 2014, she sold two bottles of 100 oxycodone 20mg tablets each and two bottles of 100 hydromorphone (Dilaudid) tablets each for $1,200. On October 14, 2014, she sold three bottles of 100 oxycodone 30mg tablets each for $1,500.
The scheme was uncovered by the Twin Falls Police Department and DEA's Tactical Diversion Squad. Federer was sentenced on May 19, 2015, to 12 months and one day in federal prison, three years of supervised release, and a $1,000 fine for distributing a controlled substance.
What Went Wrong
A pharmacy technician was able to repeatedly remove full bottles of Schedule II opioids from stock and hand them off in a parking lot without a prescription ever being questioned. Key failures included:
- Pharmacy stock of Schedule II drugs was accessible to a technician without a second-person check on outbound bottles.
- No reconciliation caught multiple full 100-count bottles leaving inventory without a corresponding filled prescription.
- The theft was discovered by law enforcement investigation rather than by the pharmacy's own internal controls.
- No monitoring flagged a technician's access patterns to Schedule II stock for review.
How It Could Have Been Prevented
- Require two-person verification whenever full bottles of Schedule II medication are pulled from bulk stock.
- Reconcile bulk inventory counts against dispensed-prescription records on a frequent, scheduled basis rather than relying on periodic biennial counts.
- Restrict pharmacy technician access to bulk Schedule II stock to what is needed for immediate, verified prescription fills.
- Use inventory management software that flags unusual bulk-bottle removals for pharmacist review.
- Screen and monitor employees with access to controlled substances per DEA guidance (21 C.F.R. §1301.90).
Related Guidance
- Pharmacy Diversion Prevention Checklist — Pharmacy self-assessment covering compounding and dispensing controls.
- Controlled Substance Inventory Requirements — Biennial inventory requirements and recordkeeping practices that surface losses.
- 15 Red Flags of Drug Diversion — Behavioral and transactional indicators including unexplained inventory shortfalls.
- Employee Screening & Fitness for Duty — DEA screening requirements (21 C.F.R. §1301.90) and pre-employment vetting for staff with controlled substance access.