Pharmacist Accused of Running Pill Mill Out of Pharmacy

In Volusia County, Florida, Michael Lomangino, a pharmacist, has been charged with stealing prescription medications from the pharmacy that employed him and then reselling those pills on the black market. His accomplice, Allina Kirkland-Michaud, has been arrested as well. They were both caught when a sheriff’s deputy pulled them over and found more than 250 prescription pills as well as drug paraphernalia and a small amount of marijuana.

Police did a search of Lomangino’s home and found what was described as a “veritable home pharmacy.” In his house was a wide range of narcotic and sedative medications that included drugs like OxyContin, Valium, Xanax and others. All told, police pulled about 5700 pills, about $5000 in cash, and a handgun that was loaded out of Lomangino’s house.

For his part, Lomangino is denying little. According to Wesh.com, he confessed to taking some of the pills from his old employer, Steve’s Pharmacy.

Tim Jobson is the owner of Steve’s Pharmacy. He said that during the 10 years that Lomangino worked for him, he never once questioned his honesty or work ethic. And though he installed cameras in his store when pharmacies like his became the common target for prescription drug addicts, he says he didn’t have a clue what Lomangino was doing.

Said Jobson: “You really don’t know the nightmare I’m going through right at the moment. I find it extremely hard to believe that this has occurred and to the extent that I just found out. I would just never in a million, trillion years think that Michael would have done something like this.”

According to law enforcement, Kirkland-Michaud described Lomangino as a drug kingpin in the county. He was using some of the pills he got from Steve’s Pharmacy to feed the addiction of Kirkland-Michaud and selling other pills to buy more of Kirkland-Michaud’s drug of choice, roxycodone.

Some of the charges that the two will face include trafficking of both hydrocodone and oxycodone, possession of Schedule III and Schedule IV narcotics, and possession of drug paraphernalia. Both are incarcerated with bail amounts set at more than half a million dollars.

The case is still under investigation as law enforcement determines the extent of Lomangino’s scam and whether or not he had more sources for pills than Steve’s Pharmacy.