Police arrested Chukwuemeka Steve Frank Obidike, of the 12400 block of Great Park Circle on Tuesday, ending a prescription fraud investigation that began in August. He is being held in the Montgomery County Detention Center on a $17,500 bond, police said.

The more than 50 charges against Mr. Obidike, a pharmacist who worked at a CVS and a pharmacy in a Safeway, are all related to prescription fraud.

They include one count of obtaining the personal information of a person without consent for the purpose of benefiting from that information, five counts of obtaining Tussionex with a forged prescription, six counts of obtaining clonazepam with a forged prescription and three counts of obtaining hydrocodone with a forged prescription.

Mr. Obidike has 12 counts each against him for unlawfully obtaining a prescription drug with a forged prescription, unlawfully obtaining a prescription drug by using a false name or address and unlawfully obtaining a prescription drug by fraud, deceit, misrepresentation, or subterfuge with a forged prescription document.

He is also charged with three counts of possessing hydrocodone and four counts of possessing clonazepam.

Investigators from the Montgomery County Police Pharmaceutical Fraud Unit were called by the Eckerd Pharmacy at 13307 New Hampshire Ave. in Silver Spring last month because its pharmacist suspected a customer might be using fraudulent prescriptions, police said.

He had used several prescriptions at the pharmacy under the name of Terry Ryder. But neither of the two referring doctors indicated on the prescriptions had a patient with that name.

Police interviewed Terry Ryder, identified by the insurance number used, and found she was a woman and had only two prescriptions filled in the last two years. She identified Mr. Obidike in a photo as a former tenant in her building named Steve, police said. She told detectives he was a pharmacist at a CVS.

Police found Steve was actually Mr. Obidike. He had been writing prescriptions in the name of Terry Ryder, police said.

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