South Floridas painkiller peddlers have taken a sharp turn into the Medicare rackets, authorities say.
On Wednesday, federal agents broke up another major ring of alleged prescription drug peddlers — including a doctor, a pharmacist and two clinic owners — in a takedown across Miami-Dade and Broward counties.
But this bust was different. A total of 24 healthcare providers and others were indicted on charges of conspiring to distribute oxycodone and oxymorphone and to defraud the federal Medicare insurance program — a new development in the typically cash-only painkiller schemes.
Agents with the Drug Enforcement Administration and U.S. Health and Human Services, assisted by local police, arrested all but three of the defendants, who remain at large, authorities said.
The networks alleged total take: $40 million.
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