A former Nebraska State Patrol investigator was sentenced to two years of probation Wednesday in federal court after pleading guilty to possession of a controlled substance.
Authorities said Christopher Kober, 46, of Bellevue, acquired drugs through “drug take back operations, overdose investigations and other means.”
The officials said he accumulated “more than 1,800 dosage units, and kept the prescription drugs and controlled substances concealed in his home rather than enter (them) into evidence or otherwise properly dispose of them.”
The pills had an estimated street value of $18,000. They were found in a bag with other personal belongings of Kober’s, officials said.
An indictment lists the drugs as acetaminophen hydrocodone bitartrate (Vicodin), oxycodone hydrochloride (Oxycontin), acetaminophen oxycodone (Percocet), morphine sulfate and Fentanyl.
Kober also forfeited his law enforcement certification and agreed not to seek future employment in law enforcement. Prosecutors dismissed a charge of intent to distribute a controlled substance in exchange for Kober’s plea.
According to the indictment, Kober acquired the drugs by “misrepresentation, fraud, deception and subterfuge … in his capacity as an investigator with the Nebraska State Patrol on assignment to the Drug Enforcement Administration.”
The patrol fired Kober in June 2017 after an internal investigation, said agency spokesman Cody Thomas.
According to information from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Nebraska, a grand jury charged Kober with acquiring drugs by fraud/diversion from January 2016 to March 17, 2017, and possessing with intent to distribute drugs within the same period.
