FL Bros Ran Lgst Opioid 'Pill Mills' in US Hist, 1000s of Deaths - 'American Pain' CNN Film, Sunday
These Florida brothers ran the largest opioid ‘pill mills’ in US history. The FBI says it was linked to thousands of deaths. CNN, Feb. 3, 2023. Ed.
* Editor’s Note: CNN Films’ “American Pain” premieres * Sunday, February 5, at 9 p.m. ET/PT on CNN.*
CNN - Throngs of people hang outside the American Pain clinic in Boca Raton, Fla., waiting their turn. Inside, a doctor greets them one by one and prescribes them pain medication, a handgun peeking out from under his white coat. American Pain is a one-stop shop, supplying both prescriptions and painkillers. At the door, a hulking bouncer warns people not to snort their pills in the parking lot. That would attract the kind of attention that the clinic’s owners, twin brothers Chris and Jeff George, are trying to avoid.
But it’s too late. Local and federal investigators are nearby, watching every move.
These are scenes from a new CNN Films’ documentary, “American Pain,” which details the George brothers’ rise and fall as opioid kingpins. The film by Emmy Award-winning director Darren Foster uses FBI wiretap recordings and undercover videos – along with the brothers’ exclusive jailhouse interviews – to paint a picture of a ruthless pain-pill empire that turned the Georges into millionaires and enabled addicts from all over the country.
“The George brothers did not start the opioid crisis. But they sure as hell poured gasoline on the fire,” said retired FBI agent Kurt McKenzie, who was part of the investigation – nicknamed Operation Oxy Alley – that began after oxycodone from the twin brothers’ clinics showed up at scenes involving drug overdoses. Investigators bugged the clinic’s phones, recorded surreptitious video and sent undercover agents masquerading as a patients to buy drugs.
“They became the largest street-level distribution group operating in the entire United States,” McKenzie added. “Nobody put more pills on the streets than they did. Nobody … and they were operating in broad daylight.”
.. Patients flocked to Florida from TN, KY, OH, WV and other Appalachian states ravaged by opioid abuse. Twin brothers Jeff & Chris George of South Fla. claim to have made tens of millions of dollars selling painkillers. One brother described their operation as ‘the Disneyland of pain clinics.’ Between them, Chris and Jeff George ran 4 pain clinics and other related businesses in South Florida. Their operation coincided with surge in the opioid epidemic between 2008 & 2010, when the prescription painkiller business was booming, federal officials said. People across the country also were beginning to realize the toxic toll the legal drugs were taking on communities.
“Before this case, the public only knew that people were dying from drug overdoses, they had no idea how the ‘system’ worked,” McKenzie said. “The George brothers created the blueprint.”...https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/03/us/american-pain-pill-mill-documentary-cec/index.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
