In the fight to pluck prescription pills out of the wrong hands, area authorities have recovered over 250,000 pharmaceutical pills, including Percocet and Oxycontin.

They say a lot of the pills were stolen by employees of Stericycle, a waste treatment plant in Parkersburg that discards pills from hospitals and nursing homes.

"They had a couple of employees who were removing drugs, controlled substances, from packages that were meant to be destroyed or disposed of on another matter," says Sheriff Larry Mincks, Washington County Sheriff's Department.

A past employee, Patrick Slider, was arrested last night when police recovered 258 Fentaynl patches and over 1,000 prescription pills from his Little Hocking residence.

The street price for all the drugs recovered during this year long investigation will shock you.

"Our projections are as many as 250,000 pills have been distributed and the street value, its hard to say, it could be anywhere between 2 and 5 million dollars," says Sheriff Mincks.

David Burns and Christina Hines were also taken into custody about a week ago, when police recovered more pills they say were intended to be redistributed. Police say it's nothing new to the area.

"Yes, prescriptions medication, in my opinion, is a huge problem in this area, but with drying up this source right here we have made substantial progress in eliminating part of the pills going out into the community," says Sheriff Mincks.

Dangerous pills that are now off the street thanks to several local law enforcement agencies