Feds Raid Pain Clinics Suspected of Illegally Distributing Millions of Prescription Drugs

March 8, 2010 — -- A raid on three South Florida pain clinics that are suspected of illegally distributing millions of prescription pills is the start of what authorities call a massive investigation of such "pill mills."

"It's a very good start to what is going to be a long process, but this is just example of what's going on," Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said. "They represent what the bad pain clinics are doing."

The raids were part of a multi-jurisdictional investigation that included the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and police departments in Broward and Palm Beach counties, which earlier this week took box after box from American Pain, East Coast Pain and Executive Pain, according to authorities.

All three clinics are owned by 29-year-old twin brothers Christopher and Jeffrey George. American Pain had been in operation for five weeks prior to the raid.

The 14-month criminal investigation of all three clinics discovered that American Pain had five primary physicians working full-time last year and together administered more than 2 million of the highly addictive oxycodone pills, according to the federal court documents.

The five doctors ranked within the top-20 purchasers of oxycodone, according to DEA statistics. They were each paid anywhere from $860,000 to $1.2 million last year, according to the court documents, which also allege that the more patients the doctors saw, the more they were paid.

A meeting between Christopher George and an undercover DEA agent wearing a recording device yielded even more evidence of the alleged unethical practices of the clinic such as money laundering and illegal distribution of prescription drugs, according to the documents.

George allegedly told the informant that he had "40 million in assets that needed to be laundered," according to the documents, and that he was carrying about $50,000 in cash that "reflected one day of income from the American Pain Clinic."

The documents also allege that the clinic attracted people from states such as Kentucky, Ohio and South Carolina to pay "$5.00 for a pill and take the pills back to their home state and sell them for $80.00 a pill." The patients would often be paid or "sponsored" by a "recruiter" to travel to Florida and upon return to their home state would "provide the sponsor with half of the narcotics they obtained," according to the documents.