Former Army Pharmacy Specialist Stole $2M in Drugs

BETHESDA, MD — A former U.S. Army pharmacy specialist who stole more than $2 million worth of a human growth hormone from Walter Reed Medical Center to sell on the streets was sentenced to 18 months in prison.

U.S. District Judge Paul W. Grimm sentenced Lamelle Marquez Malone, 35, formerly of Columbia, to 18 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for conspiring to steal prescription drugs from the Bethesda military hospital and for interstate transportation of stolen property.

Grimm on Wednesday also ordered Malone to pay a judgment of $500,000 and restitution of $2.1 million.

“Lamelle Malone ran a business selling prescription drugs, but he obtained his products for free by stealing them from Walter Reed Medical Center,” said U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein. “Over a period of 16 months, Mr. Malone and his co-conspirators stole more than $2 million worth of Somatropin, a human growth hormone available only by prescription.”

Malone admitted that from April 8, 2011 through August 2012, he conspired with Roger Gurdon, and others to steal Somatropin from the pharmacy at the former Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

Gurdon was a pharmacy technician at Walter Reed who stole the drug from the hospital and sold it to a co-conspirator. When Gurdon traveled out of the country in April 2011, he arranged for the co-conspirator to obtain Somatropin from Malone, who was an enlisted member of the Army and worked at Walter Reed. Malone distributed stolen Somatropin to the co-conspirator from April until August 2011, when Walter Reed was closed.

Malone paid a pharmacy technician at the hospital to order the drug, and paid the non-commissioned officer who was in charge of the pharmacy to ignore the fact that Malone was stealing Somatropin. Malone took the stolen drug to his home in Columbia, and to College Park, to distribute to the co-conspirator.

During the period that Malone was involved in the conspiracy, the government claims that he and his co-conspirators stole over $2 million worth of Somatropin from the Walter Reed pharmacy. Gurdon admitted that the total loss to the United States over the course of the entire conspiracy was at least $4,467 million.

Gurdon, 43, of Waldorf, pleaded guilty to his role in the conspiracy and was sentenced to 78 months in prison, and was ordered to pay restitution of $4.467 million.