DEA Closes Dozens of Pharmacies as 290 Arrested in Opioid Crackdown
The DEA also seized $3.3 million in assets in massive operation
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Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents have arrested two-hundred and ninety people and shut down dozens of pharmacies as part of a massive crackdown on opioids.
The DEA also seized $3.3 million in assets, including a small airplane and a yacht as part of an operation called “Operation Cazador.”
“Agents with the Drug Enforcement Administration also confiscated more than 600 pounds of heroin and opioids as well as more than 35 weapons,” The Daily Mail reported.
Agents arrested a pharmacist in Ormond Beach, who was an accused of peddling illegal substances and whose license had previously been revoked.
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The pharmacist was reportedly facing similar charges when she reopened her pharmacy to begin selling again.
According to the chief intelligence agent in the DEA’s Miami office, Justin Miller, the agency is trying to stop the problem and clean up their community, NBC News reported
“We’re out there, and we’re trying to get ahead of this problem, trying to reduce fatalities in our communities,” he said.
According to the report:
The takedown targeted physicians and pharmacists who, in the eyes of law enforcement officials, have worsened the overdose crisis.
In central Florida, for example, DEA agents arrested the manager of a convenience store who has been charged for selling heroin and cocaine tied to multiple overdose deaths.
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In July, drugmakers and distributors had dispensed over 76 billion pills to over the last seven years, according to Breitbart.
“In 2012, 12.6 billion of those same pills were dispensed to pharmacies. Three generic drug manufacturers accounted for nearly 90 percent of opioid sales, including oxycodone and hydrocodone, which are then shipped to big-name pharmacies,” the report said.
President Donald Trump said in April that opioid prescriptions are down by a third as more people enter addiction treatment.
Trump said he persuaded China to reel in fentanyl, a synthetic opioid responsible for killing tens of thousands of Americans, and that his criminal-justice reform bill has helped 16,000 inmates into drug-abuse treatment.
Moreover, the number of people receiving medication-assisted treatment has risen to more than 60% under his administration.
“We will never stop until our job is done, and then maybe we’ll have to find something new,” Mr. Trump told the Rx Drug Abuse and Heroin Summit in Atlanta.
