TAMPA – More than 100 street-level prescription drug buyers and sellers have been arrested and more are being sought in an undercover investigation dubbed Operation Side Effects, authorities said today.

Undercover drug deals were struck near pain clinics, in parking lots and on the streets. Hillsborough County sheriff’s detectives continue serving warrants in the weeks-long investigation.

The sheriff’s office said investigators expect to net 135 arrests as part of the operation and have seized more than 5,000 pills of oxycodone, Xanax and other narcotic prescriptions.

Authorities say they also are targeting out-of-state buyers who purchase prescription drugs illegally here for $10 to $15 a pill and then sell them for up to $30 each back home. The pills cost about $1 each in pharmacies.

In the first six months of 2009, oxycodone caused more deaths in Florida than any other drug, according to the state Medical Examiner. During that time, more than three times as many overdose deaths were caused by oxycodone than by the total caused by cocaine or heroin in Hillsborough, Pasco and Pinellas counties.

The problem is particularly acute in the Tampa area, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which says the eight counties that make up the Tampa coverage area account for 25 percent of the prescription drug deaths statewide but less than 18 percent of the population.

The sheriff’s office said deputies continue to arrest buyers who visit the 73 registered pain clinics in unincorporated Hillsborough to obtain pills for illegal purposes. They also are probing the underground network of prescription writing fraud.

On Monday, the owner of Neurology and Pain Center clinics pleaded guilty in Tampa federal court to prescription drug trafficking. The chain of clinics was targeted by another undercover sheriff’s investigation. Several doctors have also been prosecuted, including the medical director of Neurology and Pain Center.

The sheriff’s office said it is working with the Hillsborough County Commission to create an ordinance further regulating pain clinics.

By ELAINE SILVESTRINI | The Tampa Tribune