getting narcotics from wal-mart???

Illegal aliens delivering drugs to Wal-Mart
Reported by: Annie Cutler
Last Update: 4/24 10:07 pm



CEDAR CITY, Utah (ABC 4 News) - Three men are in jail telling a strange story about drugs and Wal-Mart. It started with a routine traffic stop. Iron County Sheriffs also found boxes of prescription medication in the car. The driver says he was delivering them to the chain store in Cedar City.

Iron County Deputy Wade Lee says Diego Jimenez, Maricio Jimenez, and Kyle Gutierrez were on their way to the Cedar City Wal-Mart. They were stopped on Northbound I-15 at mile marker 45, where Deputy Lee clocked them driving 96 miles per hour.

Lee says he grew suspicious when he saw a pipe in the glove compartment. After searching the car, he found two boxes of prescription narcotics. The stock invoice found with the drugs shows the retail value is over $30,000.

Lee says two of the men admitted to being illegal aliens. The driver said he's been delivering prescription drugs for a company called "Nevada Courier" for several months. Lee explains, “He said ‘I was sitting at home and somebody called me and paid me $150 and a tank of gas to drive these medications down here and drop them off.’”

Police say the men are from Las Vegas. They had made a delivery in Mesquite, two in Saint George, and their fourth delivery would have been in Cedar City. Lee says, “I called Wal-Mart and they said yeah they were expecting a delivery and the driver was late.”

We called Wal-Mart with some questions. In an email statement, a Wal-Mart spokesperson writes, "This situation is unacceptable to Wal-Mart. We maintain strict standards for courier companies that transport products for us. As this was a situation involving a contractor, your questions would need to be addressed by the courier company or the police."

Iron County Sheriffs say what's frightening here is the safety of Wal-Mart pharmacy customers. Lee says, “You don't know if they opened the box, no tamper seals, nothing... so you never know what you're going to get I guess.”

ABC 4 did make a call to "Nevada Courier." The man on the other end of the line hung up on us.

Wow, it's odd...I used to get my scripts from WalMart in Nashville...and to think they might have been drugs actually manufactured in Mexico and not the US....I think we should all Boycott WalMart until we get a straight answer from them...

Woah there Tony,

Why are you so upset? It was just a thought.  Don't get so bent out of shape about it...I'm sorry if I offended you.

Me

I don't know whether the problem ultimately lies with Wal-Mart. Typically the supplier would choose the delivery service, not the intended recipient. I don't know for sure, but based on standard protocol, my guess is that Wal-Mart had nothing to do with choosing who delivered the meds. It would have been either the manufacturer or a distributor. Why weren't the medications tamper-proof when they were shipped from the manufacturer? I'm always shocked about these things.

I remember learning from my mail order pharmacy (which coincidentally is also located in Nevada) that they ship controlled substances including C2's through the regular post office without any tracking numbers. I found this out after a 90-day supply never arrived at my home & I contacted the company to find out where it was. They had no idea. Needless to say, the police weren't even willing to file a report since there was no way to prove where exactly the meds were lost or stolen. Since that time, I always pay a premium to ship them UPS, signature required, but I just think that something must be really wrong with our world that with all the dozens of questions we are drilled with at every step of trying to fill our prescriptions that these drugs can be moved around the country without anyone keeping tabs on them. Yes, it's true that most diversion occurs b/c of family & friends taking meds from a legit patient, but still ... I get phone calls, emails, pharmacy notes, messages delivered by my doctor, web site warnings, etc. all telling me how important it is for me to keep tabs on my personal supply including regularly counting meds, keeping logs, locking them up, properly disposing of unused or partially used meds. So how is it that no one is keeping closer tabs on these shipping processes?

What I find most curious though is the fact that there were 3 people delivering 2 boxes of meds. Doesn't anyone else think that's kind of strange?