NPR

Drug Distributor And Former Execs Face First Criminal Charges In Opioid Crisis

A DEA official said the indictments are meant to send "shock waves" through the pharmaceutical industry to remind it of its responsibility to help control prescription medications.

A major pharmaceutical distribution company and two of its former executives are facing criminal charges for their roles in advancing the nation's opioid crisis and profiting from it.

Rochester Drug Co-Operative Inc., one of the nation's 10 largest pharmaceutical distributors in the U.S., its former CEO and former were charged with conspiracy to distribute controlled narcotics — oxycodone and fentanyl — for non-medical reasons and conspiracy to defraud the United States.

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