Arrest made in pharmacy drug thefts

A man suspected of one or more burglaries of the prescription drugs in Lake Forest and possibly San Clemente has been arrested on warrant by a multi-agency task force as he walked out of a Huntington Beach pharmacy, police said Friday.

Brian Dow Fleming, 38, of Westminster, may have been casing the Walgreens at 19001 Brookhurst St. when officers arrested him following a tip from the public, said Orange County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Jim Amormino. He was processed in Huntington Beach and is being taken to Orange County Jail in Santa Ana, authorities said.

Fleming is “certainly not connected” to robberies of the drug OxyContin reported in the last few months in Costa Mesa, Huntington Beach and Newport Beach, Amormino said.

Fleming was arrested on warrant on suspicion of a February burglary of the Foothill Ranch Medical Plaza, Amormino said. An estimated $10,000 in drugs, including morphine derivative OxyContin, were stolen then.

“And that’s just the wholesale value,” Amormino said. “These pills go for up to $80 a piece on the street.”

A court date has not yet been set, but Fleming is expected to appear in court early next week.