Attorney General Josh Shapiro announced charges against 13 people affiliated with a prescription drug ring that illegally wrote prescriptions for Oxycodone and then sold them in the Lehigh Valley.

Using a prescription pad stolen from St. Luke's Orthopedic Specialists, of Fountain Hill, William Huggins, 26, of Allentown wrote the fraudulent prescriptions and the other 12 defendants filled the illegal prescriptions for sale at a street value of $54,000. Authorities said none of the 13 people involved in the drug ring are patients of the practice.Shapiro said. "Seventy percent of heroin users started out by using prescription drugs. That's why our office has increased the number of arrests we've made since 2016 for people who illegally divert prescription drugs from legitimate use to illegal sales that fuel addiction."This investigation began in early April after the Office of Attorney General was alerted to a stolen prescription pad by the Fountain Hill Police Department. A report from the Pennsylvania Department of Health's Prescription Drug Monitoring Program revealed suspicious prescriptions being filled by numerous people under doctors listed at that practice.