KERMIT (AP) — State and federal officials have executed search warrants looking for evidence of an illegal prescription-drug scheme in southern West Virginia involving millions of pain pills.
Special Agent M.A. Withrow alleges in an affidavit filed in U.S. District Court that a medical complex in Kermit near the Kentucky border conspired with two pharmacies to defraud government assistance programs.
The affidavit says one pharmacy received 3.2 million hydrocodone pills in 2006, above the national average of 97,431 per pharmacy.
Withrow alleges business was so robust that the pharmacy filled one hydrocodone prescription a minute.
There is no public record of charges being filed.
Officials at the medical complex, the doctors and pharmacies involved did not return messages Wednesday.