A young prescription drug dealer from Quebec has found his dream job stocking supplies, using his job as a warehouse clerk at the Familiprix chain to directly steal pills, which he then resells.
Benjamin Plante last week admitted stealing drugs from Familiprix between August 2023 and April 2024.
He also pleaded guilty to possession for the purpose of smuggling and drug trafficking, as well as weapons charges.
An employee of the chain’s warehouse since 2017, the clerk handled boxes of medications and “powered a robot that fulfills orders.”
But the 25-year-old also fed his pockets for months by stealing pills, including the sleeping pill Zopiclone and pregabalin, an epilepsy drug that was abused in high doses for its euphoric effects.
It was the observation of repeated errors in inventory that alerted the company’s director of supply chain and distribution.
In the 16 months leading up to the investigation, Familiprix noted a “negative imbalance” of a total of 60,000 tablets.
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Surveillance cameras
During the course of the investigation, Plante could be seen on surveillance cameras placing jars of medication in his pockets on three different days.
In addition, photographs seized from the defendant’s mobile phone showed a bottle of 2,400 zopiclone tablets, and in the same week, a missing bottle of the same drug was found in the inventory.
At his home, investigators also found about 1,100 tablets of various medications, as well as scales and packaging bags.
His mother also filed a police report, saying that for several months she often found pills in her son’s room, which she hid “so he couldn’t eat them.”
The minimum value of the drug theft charged to Benjamin Plant is $16,000, the prosecutor in the case said.e Elizabeth Gallant.
Drugs and weapons
It turns out that Plante wasn’t just selling prescription drugs stolen from his employer.
Analysis of the mobile phone allowed police to confirm that the man was also involved in trafficking cocaine and other drugs.
Specifically, he received approximately forty Interac transfers for crack cocaine, and was also arrested for possession of just over 200 methamphetamine pills while causing a disturbance at a restaurant lunch while heavily intoxicated.
Finally, Benjamin Plant also pleaded guilty to a charge of possession of a prohibited weapon.
He was arrested by police after an argument with a friend who had hosted him and alerted authorities to the existence of the weapon – a .410-caliber rifle without a stock, the barrel of which had been cut off.
The defendant will return to court in the fall for comments on his sentence. He remains at large during the trial.