Armed robber took 6,000 pills

A Havre woman is accused of stealing at gunpoint more than 6,000 pills from a Havre pharmacy Monday, and of selling almost 2,000 of them by the time police arrested her at a Havre hotel the next day.

Arlene Morsette, 34, was in the Hill County jail this morning on $100,000 bond on charges of possessing drugs with intent to distribute, possession of drugs, robbery, assault with a weapon, criminal child endangerment, and having property subject to forfeiture.

Charges in state District Court had not been filed yet as of this morning.

A court document says Western Drug Pharmacy was robbed at gunpoint Monday by a Native American woman wearing a hooded coat and a bandana. The woman stole more than 6,000 prescription pills including hydrocodone, oxycodone, Ambien and Xanax.

She also stole about $400 in cash.

The woman was last seen walking east through the alley, then got into a blue or green minivan and fled the scene, the document says.

Police received a tip Tuesday that a woman and Ryan Greenough were selling large amounts of prescription pills from a room at the Budget Inn in Havre, the document says. A drug task force agent found that Greenough, who is serving probation, rented the room identified in the tip.

The agent, probation officers and other officers searched the room where he, Morsette and Morsette’s 4-month-old daughter were residing. The agent located two plastic bags in a cigarette box that contained prescription medication, the document says.

At that point, the agent seized the room pending issuance of a search warrant.

When the warrant was issued and the room was searched, agents found more than 4,700 pills concealed in the ceiling of the room, which matched pills that were stolen Monday, the document says. They also found $125 in currency.

The agents noted that about 1,799 pills were unaccounted for compared to the number stolen Monday.

The pills were repackaged in plastic bags consistent with what commonly is sold in illegal drug transactions, the document says.

Along with the drug, robbery, assault and and property forfeiture charges, Morsette has been charged with tampering with evidence by taking the pills out of their packages and putting them into bags, and with criminal child endangerment for selling drugs while her daughter was present.

No charges or petitions to revoke the release of Greenough, who was born in 1983, had been filed in District Court as of this morning. No record of his being arrested — or of Morsette’s arrest — were listed in the police log this week.

The Montana Correctional Offender Network listed Greenough this morning as being on conditional release, with the last change of his status listed as occurring Wednesday.