Broward County is famous for being considered the pill mill headquarters of the United States. People travel from all over, especially from states like Ohio and Pennsylvania to buy pills such as Oxycodone from various pain clinics.

An article in WPTV News reports a new raid that has been launched against pain clinics in south Florida: Federal and local drug agents are conducting a series of pain clinic raids in Palm Beach and Broward Counties this morning in a major enforcement action, according to sources with knowledge of the investigation.

In Palm Beach County, the raids are focusing on five doctors operating in four separate pain clinics across the county. The effort is the culmination of a lengthy investigation expected to yield federal racketeering and drug trafficking charges, the sources said. Among the agencies participating are the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office and the State Attorney's Office.

A lack of state regulation allowed South Florida, and especially Palm Beach and Broward counties, to become a hotbed of illicit drug dealing, fueling soaring overdose rates and supplying drug traffickers in Appalachia and the northeast, authorities said.

Drug Trafficking and Oxycontin Defense

If you have ever been accused of drug trafficking, you are in for a long process, and the first thing you need to do is enlist the help of a criminal defense lawyer. It’s important to recognize how seriously the law takes trafficking drugs, specifically pain pills like Oxycodone. South Florida has been so lax with laws that pain clinics are absolutely ridden with drug trafficking, doctor shopping, and corruption.

Many of these pain clinics also lead to cases of federal racketeering and fraud. While many pain clinics have been shut down and doctors prosecuted, there is still a hefty amount of crimes being committed involving pain pill trafficking. Consult a criminal defense lawyer if you have been accused of drug trafficking, he or she will know what to do.