Hillsborough Clerk of Courts employee arrested on drug charge

TAMPA — An employee of the Hillsborough County Clerk of Circuit Court's office was arrested on the job Tuesday and charged with illegal possession of a prescription drug.

A co-worker reported to deputies Friday that Edwin Lopez-Valentin, 35, had been bragging about buying drugs from his native Puerto Rico, said Debbie Carter, a spokeswoman for the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office.

Carter said deputies waited until Lopez-Valentin returned to work Tuesday to make the arrest, and confiscated Alprazolam, an anxiety medication used to decrease abnormal excitement in the brain, according to the National Institute of Health Web site.

"He had about five and a half pills and he said he didn't have a prescription," Carter said. Lopez-Valentin, of 4515 N Rome Ave., was released from the Hillsborough County Jail on $2,000 bail Tuesday.