The Ventura County Interagency Pharmaceutical Crimes Unit is a task force comprised of members from the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office, Simi Valley Police Department, the District Attorney’s Office Bureau of Investigation, and the California Highway Patrol.

The primary mission of the task force is combating the transfer of legal prescription medication to the illegal market.

In addition, the task force works to identify and stop new trends of abuse among the younger population and investigates overdose deaths due to both prescription medication and illicit drug use.

An investigation by the Ventura County Interagency Pharmaceutical Crimes Unit began in November when authorities received a tip from a doctor based in Ventura County, according to a report published in the Ventura County Star..

The doctor had been visited by Jennifer Williams, 49, of Calabasas, who was seeking a prescription for controlled substances, authorities said.

The doctor later looked up Williams’ prescription history in a database and found she had visited multiple physicians throughout Southern California in an attempt to acquire prescriptions.

Research conducted by investigators revealed that Williams had visited 80 doctors within the past year from Orange County to Santa Barbara County, with 25 doctors being in Ventura County.

Over the course of those visits, Williams obtained approximately 1,100 doses of lorazepam and 3,600 doses of the prescription painkillers oxycodone and hydrocodone, authorities said.

On Jan. 24, detectives detained Williams outside an urgent-care facility in Thousand Oaks. While she was detained, investigators found paperwork documenting recently prescribed pain medication from multiple doctors, according to authorities.

Williams was taken into custody on suspicion of obtaining a controlled substance by fraud, deceit or misrepresentation.

The Ventura County District Attorney’s Office filed 11 counts of the above charge against Williams and she has pleaded not guilty, according to court records.