DeKalb County police have charged four people in connection with a burglary ring that targeted metro Atlanta pharmacies.
Deangelo Harris, Demetrius Height and Steven Finney were each charged with one count of obstruction, jail records show. They were booked into the DeKalb County Jail on Sunday evening and all released before 6 a.m. Monday. Antwone Owens was charged with one count of violating the Georgia Controlled Substances Act. He remains in the DeKalb jail awaiting a bond hearing, according to jail records.
A tracking device in a pill bottle led investigators to a home on Sims Avenue in northwest Atlanta, where 11 people were detained about 11:30 a.m. Sunday, according to police spokeswoman Michaela Vincent. After further investigation, seven of the suspects were released.
Vincent said “it is believed that the individuals are connected to a number of pharmacy burglaries in DeKalb County and the metro area,” but she did not specify how many incidents were under investigation.
Police began tracking the suspects after a burglary hours earlier at a Publix pharmacy on Panola Road. When officers arrived shortly after 2 a.m., they found a set of front doors and the roll-down pharmacy gate forced open, according to a police report.
The grocery store’s manager told police she closed up for the night at 1:30 a.m.
“The suspects took an undetermined amount of pharmacy narcotics,” an officer said in the report. “The suspects exited through the left front door.”
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