Pacific Grove Police arrested a man they say has held up five
pharmacies, including one in Morgan Hill, for pain medication and
shipped the pills outside the state on the black market.
Pacific Grove Police arrested a man they say has held up five pharmacies, including one in Morgan Hill, for pain medication and shipped the pills outside the state on the black market.
Brennan Tiffany, 32, was arrested Sept. 16 in the parking lot of a Safeway grocery store in Pacific Grove, according to Cmdr. John Nyunt of the Pacific Grove Police Department.
Tiffany is accused of a string of armed robberies, including an Aug. 28 incident at Walgreens at 745 East Dunne Ave., in which he silently handed the pharmacy clerk a note stating he had a gun and demanding a supply of OxyContin pain medication, police said.
The clerk complied, and handed the robber 517 doses of the popular medication that is only available by prescription, according to Morgan Hill Detective Ken Howard. The heavy-strength medication he took off with was worth about $4,300.
Immediately after that incident, police reported that witnesses gave only a vague description of the robber, and did not see the vehicle in which he fled.
Morgan Hill Police were aware of previous similar robberies at pharmacies in Monterey and Marina that happened prior to the Aug. 28 incident.
Tiffany’s identity was unknown until shortly after he allegedly robbed Central Avenue Pharmacy in Pacific Grove Sept. 14. His method was the same as it was in the Morgan Hill robbery, according to police.
In the latest incident, he handed the clerk a note that read “Give me all your OxyContin. I’m desperate, I have a gun, and I’m not afraid to use it,” Nyunt said. Tiffany then lifted his shirt to expose a hand gun in the waist band of his pants.
A witness to the robbery saw the license plate number on the vehicle the man drove away in, and that allowed police to determine his name and led them to his home in Carmel Valley, Nyunt said.
Morgan Hill detectives traveled to Pacific Grove the next day to assist in the investigation.
OxyContin is a controlled substance that contains the opium-derived medication Oxycodone. It is regularly prescribed to patients who suffer moderate to severe pain symptoms, and can be addictive, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
The drug is often sought on the black market for its euphoria-inducing side effects.
When police searched Tiffany’s home, they found evidence indicating he had illegally shipped some of the narcotics out of the state, police said.
Tiffany, who is believed to be linked to a fifth robbery in Sand City, was arrested without incident on suspicion of armed robbery. He is in custody in the Monterey County Jail.
Federal law enforcement authorities are involved in the investigation, Nyunt said.
