Yesterday evening around 6:00PM, officers from the District A-1 Drug Control Unit initiated an investigation into illegal re-sale of prescription drug sale in the Haymarket Bus/Train Station in response to numerous citizen complaints and tips to from Department sources.
Officers initiated this investigation by dispatching undercover officers to the this area with marked department money utilizing ‘bust/buy’ tactics to combat this problem of illegal resale of prescription drugs. Offices were also deployed to various surveillance posts in this area. One undercover officer, after several minutes of deployment, observed an unknown white male approach and have a conversation with two females who were sitting on the ledge at the front of a store. The officers further observed the male whisper into the ear of one of the women who then reached into her bag and took something of a prescription bottle and hand it to the male who placed the item in his mouth. The officer believing that he had just witnessed a drug transaction then approached the female suspect to further the investigation and asked her if she had any “PINS” (street terminology) for Klonopins. The suspect responded and said that she did not have any “PINS” but had Subaxones. After a brief conversation about the price and milligram dosage, the female suspect asked to officer to walk into a store where she sold him two prescription pills for fifteen ($15) dollars.
The officer then notified other officers that a transaction had just taken place. The suspect, Brenda Gagliardi, 34 of Medford was then located and placed under arrest for Possession of Class B with intent to Distribute. Further investigation revealed to officers that the suspect had just her prescription filled on 7/13/10 to take one tablet three times a day only had five pills remaining. A number of other prescription bottles with pills were found in the suspect’s purse.