Incomplete (tip-o-the iceberg, seriously this isn’t the half-of-it!) list of United States drug related crimes and oddities for the month of September 2022:

Germany based drugs maker Bayer fined $40-million for bribing U.S. hospitals and doctors, and lying about the so-called off-label use of their drugs Trasylol, Avelox and Baycol.

During the month of September, the U.S. Navy, and Coast Guard, captured as much as $95-million dollars worth of heroin in The Gulf of Oman.

On 27SEP2022, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) boasted of “removing” 36-million doses of fentanyl (more than 10.2-million fentanyl pills and approximately 980-pounds of fentanyl powder) from the streets of the United States, from May through 08SEP2022.  The DEA continues to blame the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, both based in Mexico, for the problem.

FLORIDA:  Florida man pleads guilty to a $8.3-million scheme to rip-off taxpayers, by bribing medical telemarketers into submitting false prescriptions for drugs that were billed to Medicare.

Bales of illegal drugs, worth an estimated $475-million, are offloaded on Coast Guard Base Miami Beach, 15SEP2022.

INDIANA: The State Board of Nursing violated federal Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act, regarding the treatment of opioid use disorder.  Indiana taxpayers now forced to pay the federal government $70-thousand in fines!

ILLINOIS: Pharmaceutical company Akorn fined $7.9-million for ripping-off taxpayers by charging Medicare Part D for drug prescriptions that turned out to not qualify under Part D.

KENTUCKY:  A doctor, who is also a former elected public official, was convicted of federal drug crimes, for illegally prescribing  Oxycontin, Klonopin, Ambien, and Valium.

OKLAHOMA: 

On 27SEP2022, the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and the Oklahoma Army National Guard raided an illegal marijuana farm in Pawnee County.

MASSACHUSETTS: Drug maker Biogen is fined $900-million for ripping-off taxpayers, by bribing doctors to submit false prescription drug claims with Medicare and Medicaid.

VIRGINIA:

The U.S. Navy (USN) tested out a new stealth robot boat to counter an old problem; drug traffickers using boats and aircraft that have little to no radio-frequency signatures.  The USN, and the U.S. Southern Command, referrers to such vehicles as “Dark Targets”.  It is part of the ONR SCOUT program.  ONR stands for Office of Naval Research. However, while SCOUT is spelled in all-caps, it is not an acronym but rather part of a title; SCOUT Experimentation Campaign.  It is all about creating robot systems to replace human personnel.  On 19SEP2022, a robot boat (USV) was tested from Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story, at the entrance of the Chesapeake Bay.  USN personnel used a captured ‘Dark Target’ drug boat to try an elude the robot.   USN video report:

Drugs, the American Way: DRUGS PACKAGED AS EXPLOSIVES?