According to the arrest report, 24-year-old Gaulden was part of a scheme to fraudulently obtain promethazine with codeine — which, according to the National Library of Medicine, is mixed with Sprite and/or alcohol to make “purple drank” or “lean,” and is popular with rappers.
Police say Gaulden and “many other individuals” (who were not named in the documents) tried to obtain the prescribed cough suppressant from multiple pharmacies in Cache County.
According to police, Gaulden called in a prescription supposedly for a 74-year-old woman to a pharmacy in Hyrum in September.
They said he claimed to be a physician in the Provo area, using “an actual, valid DEA number, NPI number and other identification for the real physician.”
The pharmacist noticed that the phone number did not match the number of said doctor’s clinic, so they called the doctor directly.
The doctor said he did not write a prescription for a woman by that name, and added that this sort of thing “happened several times today.”
Similar incidents occurred at other pharmacies in Cache County, and police said two women picked up the prescribed drugs during one instance.
They were then detained as part of the investigation and later arrested for their alleged involvement in the “prescription fraud ring.”
The Cache County Sheriff’s Office said the vehicle the women arrived in to pick up the drugs was registered to Gaulden.
Then later, his business manager contacted the sheriff’s office about getting the vehicle out of impound.
The officer asked to speak directly to Gaulden.
