Officers with the Scioto County Drug Task Force on Monday arrested a Portsmouth man in connection to the robbery of CVS in Portsmouth on Sunday in which a man got away with hundreds of oxycodone pills.

According to the Task Force, an unknown suspect, later identified by police as Timothy Literal, 37, of Portsmouth, entered the CVS Pharmacy on Scioto Trail in Portsmouth at about 12:50 p.m. on Sunday. He handed an employee a note that stated “this is a robbery,” and that he had a gun.

The note demanded the oxycodone tablets from behind the counter. According to police reports, the suspect was handed the oxycodone, and he left without further incident.

Literal was identified by Portsmouth Police using images from CVS security tape footage, and a warrant was issued for his arrest.

The Drug Task Force set up a sting operation, but were unable to convince Literal to bring the pills back into Ohio.

“He knew we were familiar with him, and he knew we were onto him already, and he wanted to avoid coming to Ohio,” said Investigator Steve Timber-lake of the Portsmouth Police Department.

Working with the South Shore Police Department, officers from the Drug Task Force arranged for Literal to meet a subject at a South Shore, Ky., business to sell some of the drugs taken during the robbery.

When Literal arrived, he was taken into custody by Officer Jason Bryant of the South Shore Police Depart-ment, with assistance from Investigators Timberlake and Adam Giles of the Scioto County Sheriff's Office.

“Getting these drugs was a very big impact on what's on the street right now. There was a large amount of pills taken, and we recovered a large majority of those pills. Had those pills been on the streets, that would have been large,” Timberlake said.

Literal still had 334 oxycodone tablets in his possession at the time of his arrest on Monday, according to the Drug Task Force.

Timberlake said the pills included 20, 40 and 80 milligrams each.

Literal was arrested on a warrant from the Portsmouth Muni-cipal Court charging him with robbery of the CVS Pharmacy; a second-degree felony. Tim-berlake said Literal already is on probation for another pharmacy robbery in Rosemount in 2003.

He was being held Monday in the Greenup County jail. He is scheduled to appear in Greenup District Court on Wednesday on charges related to the drugs found on him at the time of his arrest in Kentucky. Charges in-clude trafficking in a controlled substance and receiving stolen property.

RYAN SCOTT OTTNEY can be reached at (740) 353-3101, ext. 235.