{"id":386,"date":"2012-02-08T06:00:13","date_gmt":"2012-02-08T11:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thinblueflorida.com\/?p=386"},"modified":"2012-02-08T07:48:57","modified_gmt":"2012-02-08T12:48:57","slug":"the-untouchables-arrested-in-floridakentucky-pill-mill-sting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thinblueflorida.com\/?p=386","title":{"rendered":"The Untouchables Arrested in Florida\/Kentucky Pill Mill Sting"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>A case from last week proves that slowing the sale of legal prescription pills for illegitimate purposes is more difficult than was thought.\u00a0 Though Florida\u2019s Attorney General Pam Bondi has made it a priority to shut down \u201cpill mills,\u201d and the illegal drug infrastructure they support, initial controls are not yet putting a squeeze on the flow.<\/p>\n

On 2\/3\/2012, Franklin County, Kentucky Sheriff Pat Melton announced the arrest of nearly 30 individuals wanted in the large scale distribution of Oxycodone and other pills obtained from Florida pharmacies.\u00a0 It was called Operation Untouchable.<\/p>\n

The nickname for the criminal syndicate came from the wording \u201cThe Untouchables\u201d and a photo of group members that was printed on t-shirts that suspects openly wore while conducting their drug trafficking.<\/p>\n

During 2011, the group was able to purchase almost a million dollars worth of Schedule II and III painkillers at South Florida pharmacies in Broward County.\u00a0 The drugs were transported back to Kentucky for sale.<\/p>\n

In a joint operation by the Franklin County Sheriff\u2019s Office, Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Marshal\u2019s Service, Broward County Sheriff\u2019s Office, and West Palm Beach Police Department, \u201cThe Untouchables\u201d were tracked over a thousand miles between Florida and Kentucky.\u00a0 According to Melton, the group obtained and transported over 36,000 pills, with a value of $917,250.00, during the 13-month investigation.<\/p>\n

The D.E.A states 90 of the top 100 doctors in the country who prescribe Oxycodone have been from Florida.\u00a0 Florida\u2019s Operation Pill Nation sought to crack down on these doctors and pill mill clinics.\u00a0 Since then, Bondi says that number of doctors has been reduced to 11.<\/p>\n

On January 19, 2012, Bondi and Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway spoke at a prescription drug abuse conference in Lexington, Kentucky.\u00a0 Both AG\u2019s agreed the \u201cpill pipeline\u201d between Florida and Kentucky was significantly reduced through legislative and law enforcement efforts.<\/p>\n

In my area of Florida, 2010 and 2011 saw a boom, not only prescription drug abuse, but in other crimes that surround the users themselves, such as burglary, theft, battery, and DUI.\u00a0 On many calls, we could trace back from the reported crime to someone\u2019s pill problem.<\/p>\n

In this game of hide and seek, the drug dealers will do their best to circumvent each new legal rule.\u00a0 Conversely, the federal government and states must work with law enforcement to close each open loophole and keep our streets safe.<\/p>\n

Randall<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A case from last week proves that slowing the sale of legal prescription pills for illegitimate purposes is more difficult than was thought.\u00a0 Though Florida\u2019s Attorney General Pam Bondi has made it a priority to shut down \u201cpill mills,\u201d and the illegal drug infrastructure they support, initial controls are not yet putting a squeeze on the flow. On 2\/3\/2012, Franklin County, Kentucky Sheriff Pat Melton announced the arrest of nearly 30 individuals wanted in the large scale distribution of Oxycodone and other pills obtained from Florida pharmacies.\u00a0 It was called Operation Untouchable. The nickname for the criminal syndicate came from the wording \u201cThe Untouchables\u201d and a photo of group members … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[52,50,51],"class_list":["post-386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-legal","tag-pam-bondi","tag-pill-mill","tag-prescription-drugs"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p28xkp-6e","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thinblueflorida.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thinblueflorida.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thinblueflorida.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thinblueflorida.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thinblueflorida.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=386"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/thinblueflorida.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":397,"href":"https:\/\/thinblueflorida.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386\/revisions\/397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thinblueflorida.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thinblueflorida.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thinblueflorida.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}