DEA And NYPD Bust Drug Company That Didn't Report Theft Of Oxycodone

OxyContin pills

DEA

A New York pharmaceutical company has settled a six-figure lawsuit with the federal government after it was revealed that the drug distributor violated the Controlled Substances Act when failed it to report pharmacy orders and the theft or loss of Oxycodone and other drugs to the Drug Enforcement Agency, BuzzFeed News has learned.

The joint investigation led by the DEA and NYPD represents a significant shift in enforcement focus from street-level dealers, rogue pharmacies, and dirty doctors to the larger companies who garner big profits from the legal distribution of highly-addictive drugs and opioids like Oxycodone.

The company, Rochester Drug Cooperative, Inc., will pay $360,000 in fines as part of the settlement, a federal law enforcement source told BuzzFeed News.

Preet Bharara, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, is expected to announce the settlement as early as Wednesday.

According to the complaint, after an audit of various New York City pharmacies that carrying drugs distributed by RDC, investigators determined that the company failed to report thousands of orders of drugs over a period of five years.

Investigators also found that RDC failed to report the theft or loss of drugs during the same time period. According to the complaint, this violation occurred on multiple occasions, with the precise number of violations to be established in court.

In 2013, the DEA conducted an on-site investigation of RDC. The investigation confirmed the company’s reporting system was underreporting many thousands of drug sales to pharmacies throughout the northeast region. RDC initially claimed that their numbers were off due to computer error and the company told investigators it had plans to implement a new tracking system. But a year later, the feds found that RDC had not made the changes as promised.

According to its website, RDC was established in 1905 and is the “eighth largest full-line distributor in the US.”

Calls to RDC were not immediately returned.

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