WATCH – BLACK MARKETEERS? –
August 12, 2021 – Groogan described the definition of “diversion” as the re-routing of highly addictive, highly dangerous opiates into the black market for illegal sale.
The civil seizure of the massive quantities of narcotics took place at the warehouse of Woodfield Pharma, also known as WDSrx. The Boca Raton, Florida, company is a contract pharmaceutical manufacturer and distributor established more than 30 years ago.
ASAC Smith told Groogan, “This is really the foundation of the opioid crisis in the United States. In an illicit market, Tramadol is used as a foundation for pills that are laced with Fentanyl, pressed and sold on the streets as counterfeit Oxycodone.”
Prior to the seizure on Wednesday, DEA investigators found evidence of “large, suspicious, duplicate orders, on a monthly, sometimes weekly basis,” Fox 26 reported. They also found lax security at the warehouse including “cameras that failed to function.”
ASAC Tony Hubbard added, “We see these pills ending up on college campuses cramming for an exam thinking it’s Adderall or some other type of substance and they take it and they die.”
Hubbard told Fox 26 that they believe much of the inventory Woodfield can’t account for has been siphoned off and diverted into the black market where deadly drug overdoses are at the highest level in U.S. history.
“What we are dealing with today is where we cross that line, that threshold from legitimate medical practice to illicit use that only fuels addiction and death,” ASAC Smith concluded.
