Undercover Bust Nets 27 Arrests in Xanax Drug Ring: Prince William Police

GAINESVILLE, VA — Twenty-seven people, including a Gainesville doctor, have been arrested on drug charges following a months-long investigation by a joint narcotics task force, Prince William County Police announced Monday.

The suspects are responsible for the distribution of thousands of Xanax pills in Prince William County and other parts of the country, primarily to teens and young adults, according to a police statement.

Dr. Craig Charles Krause was warned several times by detectives that medication being prescribed was being abused and distributed by a patient, according to police. He refused to stop, and detectives later discovered other suspects had been receiving prescriptions from him. One sold Xanax to an undercover detective.

On Aug. 9, police searched Krause's two offices at 7544 Gardner Park Drive in Gainesville (Lake Manassas Medical Psychiatry) and 5675 Stone Road, Suite 320 in Centerville (Fairfax Mental Health). Upon a search post-arrest, the doctor was found to be in possession of suspected Hydrocodone and a firearm.

But the investigation, dubbed "Operation Breaking Bars," also discovered an internet ring in which multiple suspects in Prince William County were involved in ordering illicit, and often counterfeit, Xanax from the “Dark Web,” a known online black market for websites involved in criminal activity.

These suspects would purchase the narcotics and then ship them to Prince William County for the purpose of redistribution. Detectives further discovered that suspects involved in the investigation would order large quantities of Xanax at a time, and that the majority of the individuals purchasing from these suspects were in their teens and early 20s.

Charges in the investigation include distribution of narcotics, money laundering and related weapons charges. See a full list of suspects.

The undercover operation involved detectives from the Prince William-Manassas City-Manassas Park Narcotics Task Force, with assistance from the FBI and the Haymarket Police Department. It began in Oct. 2015 when police started investigating a group of suspects in Prince William County who were allegedly involved in the import and distribution of high volumes of illicit Xanas pills.

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