A charade for two Glendale men that lasted more than 18 months and caused more than $300,000 in losses to 10 pharmacies and a dozen doctor's offices throughout the Valley has ended with their arrests, authorities say.

In what authorities are calling a scam executed with "elaborate skill" involving prescription drug and insurance fraud, Scottsdale police on Wednesday arrested one man who portrayed himself as terminally ill with cancer and another who posed as his caretaker.

Acting on a tip from a doctor at a north Scottsdale pain clinic who suspected suspicious activity in February, police began investigating a scam the pair of friends are believed to have been pulling off since January 2007, according to Scottsdale police drug unit detectives.

After executing a search warrant at a Glendale residence about 3 p.m. Wednesday, Scottsdale police arrested Charles Desplanques and Anders Hallstrom on suspicion of fraud schemes, prescription drug fraud, forgery and illegal drug possession.

When Deplanques came to the door, he was sucking on a lollipop form of fentanyl, a painkiller for severe cancer patients, police said.

Police also seized a 2006 white BMW with drugs in it and obtained other drugs inside the residence as well as fraudulent paperwork that police displayed on a table during a news conference on Thursday.

"Cases like this in Scottsdale are rare," said Scottsdale police Sgt. Mark Clark. "This was done with quite elaborate skill, and these men were very schooled in what they were doing."

Eleven doctors across the Valley told police they relied on what turned out to be a phony diagnosis to give Desplanques narcotics, dangerous and prescription-only medications.

Acting as a health care facilitator, Hallstrom would often push Desplanques in a wheelchair to doctor's offices or to emergency rooms to obtain prescription drugs, according to Scottsdale police Detective Patrick Regan.

Desplanques would claim to be dying of cancer, and often would provide the paperwork to acquire painkillers, Regan said.

Desplanques used the fake diagnosis to bilk Aetna, an insurance company, out of $144,000 for an pre-death benefit in October, and scammed $107,000 from United Healthcare, Regan said.

The men were booked into the Maricopa County Fourth Avenue Jail, where Desplanques is being held on a $10,000 cash bond. Hallstrom was released on his own recognizance, according to information from the jail.

They are scheduled for an Aug. 28 status conference in Maricopa County Superior Court.