One of the largest drug roundups in Kentucky state history is underway right now. Law enforcement officials have fanned out across the state to arrest hundreds of people, in an effort to stem the tide of lethal prescription drugs flowing into the Tri-State from pain clinics in Florida.
The round up started yesterday in eastern Kentucky and investigators say they already have at least 300 people in custody and they're hunting for hundreds more.
At the Dry Ridge post of the Kentucky State Police they've brought in or are bringing in 25 of those indicted. The goal is to shatter a pill pipeline that runs from South Florida to the Tri-State.
Hammering drug dealers in places like Rockcastle County and Pikeville, Kentucky State Police along with FBI, DEA agents and local police arresting people they say have been traveling to South Florida pain clinics and collecting handfuls of prescriptions for dangerous narcotics like oxycontin and percocet then traveling back to the Tri-State and cashing in that script.
On the street, a single bottle of the high powered pills can be worth thousands of dollars. The pipeline between Florida and the Tri-State has also left a long line of overdose deaths in it's wake, bringing with it the largest overdose death rate in Kentucky history.
At 2:30 p.m. today the U.S. Attorney along with multiple law enforcement agencies involved in this effort will hold a news conference in Lexington. We'll have it covered for you and bring you the latest as this massive effort to shut off this deadly pipeline moves forward.
