Alleged Wis. prescription drug ring busted

MILWAUKEE, Oct. 4 (UPI) -- Wisconsin authorities say they've broken up a large-scale prescription drug ring that at one time allegedly was operated by a county jail inmate.

The group would allegedly use information gathered from trash bins outside pharmacies to forge prescriptions, purchase such drugs as the addictive painkiller oxycodone and distribute them in Milwaukee and elsewhere in Wisconsin, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported Saturday.

Jailed on felony charges are Micah Reno, 30, of Franklin, Wis., and James Leipski, 42, of Milwaukee. Authorities said Reno, identified as the ringleader, continued running the operation even while serving time in the Milwaukee County House of Correction on a cocaine possession charge from May 2007 through January, the newspaper said.

Prosecutors said the group's goal was to move 450 pills per day at a street value of between $45 and $80 per pill.