Ventura County authorities have arrested 21 people in connection with alleged sales of prescription drugs via Craigslist.
The arrests, announced this week, took place in recent months and stemmed from illegal sales of drugs like Adderall, OxyContin and Xanax, according to the Ventura County Sheriff's Office.
Among those arrested was a man who allegedly sold pain medication prescribed for his cancer-patient father, a woman who authorities said drove from Fontana to Simi Valley with two children in the car for a drug transaction, and a 19-year-old who allegedly sold Suboxone, a narcotic, just filling a prescription for it.
About half of those arrested got their prescriptions from an Oxnard physician, 63-year-old Kiansi Boni of Camarillo, who was also arrested, authorities said.
Boni came to their attention after "a number of his patients" were arrested for alleged sales of powerful opiate medication prescribed by him, according to a news release from the sheriff's department published over the summer.
Ventura Sheriff's Sgt. Eric Buschow said authorities have been dealing with an increase in overdoses that are often related to prescription drugs.
At community drug forums, parents approached officers to tell them their children had been purchasing drugs on Craigslist.
"We heard this over and over again from parents," Buschow said.
Many of those who are selling on Craigslist are "not even using code words or anything like that," Buschow said.
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