All language subtitles for FEDS.2023.S01E02.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH_track3_[eng]

In 2008, the oxycodone
epidemic reached
South Florida.

This drug was killing kids.

Blane's addiction just got
progressively worse.

It looks sort of like
a zombie movie.

[woman 1] People
snorting their pills,

people selling their pills.

Our local police
keep telling me this is legal

in the state of Florida.

The pain clinics,
they're everywhere.

I'm not answering
any of your questions.

[woman 2] Chris and Jeff
George are twin brothers.

Nobody was dealing anywhere
near as many pills
as they were.

Cash deposits of 150,000,
200,000 a day.

There were tens of thousands
of people

who got drugs from this place.

They just appeared to be
completely unstoppable.

Everybody knew that
patients were dying

and nobody cared.

It makes you sad,
it makes you angry.

It takes a little bit
of your heart.

They just didn't feel like
I could exhale...

[man on mic] 30 seconds out.

[woman 2] ...until we found
the evidence we needed

to bring it to an end.

I'm special agent,
Jennifer Turner.

[narrator] This isFEDS.

My name is Renee Doyle and...

I live in
Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

I was a single mom.
I had four sons.

It's a very
family-oriented environment.

A wonderful place for kids.

Blane is my third.

He was a strong-willed kid.

But he had a great
sense of humor.

He was a great soccer player.

But in 2002,
when Blane was 20 years old,

he ended up in a car accident.

He was okay, but...

his leg and knee...

was injured.

We went to
the orthopedic doctor

and of course,
they prescribed...

pain pills.

Oxycodone.

Oxycodone is an opiate and...

it is a very addictive drug.

It's something that
you should just maintain

for a few days

and then,
go on to something lighter.

But when Blane
finished the prescription,

he continued
taking pain pills.

At first, I did not know
he was continuing.

But then, I saw
his personality change.

He was just hazy
and very argumentative.

I started seeing
things missing.

That's how I really realized

how bad he was, that he was...

actually stealing from us.

Blane's addiction just got
progressively worse.

He was very lethargic,
blurry, you know, uneasy.

And two weeks
before his 28th birthday,

Blane was walking down
this very busy road.

He was just completely
filled with drugs.

Completely out of his mind.

And was struck by a car.

And he died.

As a parent, losing a child,
it takes...

little bit of your heart.

Takes a little bit
of your heart.

And you never get over it.

I can tell you,
you never get over it.

It's been 12 years.

At first, I did not know where
these pills were coming from.

But later on, I found out

there was a pain clinic
right around the corner

from my house.

The pain clinics
were very different

from your regular doctor.

They made it very easy
to get pain pills.

It was becoming an epidemic
in our area.

Many people had a loved one
that suffered from addiction.

And pain clinics
were everywhere.

The state of Florida
had over 900.

Broward County
had 150.

Our community was suffering.

In 2008, I was assigned
to the Miami division

of the FBI,

where after years of working
healthcare fraud,

I was transferred
to the organized crime squad.

Coming on to a new squad,

I was really looking to fit in
and contribute.

On my floor in the building,
we had break room,

and as I'm getting water
from the water cooler,

I hear local police talking
about these pain clinics,

also known as pill mills.

But they were bringing
all of these people

from other states
down to South Florida

to obtain large amounts
of oxycodone.

[Renee] And we're not
talking about,

you know,
five pills or 12 pills.

We're talking about
hundreds at a time.

Three-hundred, 500.

Massive amounts.

It was evil.

They're causing somebody
to become an addict

and... um, maybe die.

So, when I initially
learned about the problem,

I felt I actually
have something

that I can bring to the table

and really contribute
to my new squad.

The FBI has
federal jurisdiction.

There's a local jurisdiction

that our local police
departments have that I don't.

And that's the whole purpose
of a task force environment.

That we all bring
our various resources

and authorities to bear,

to help combat
a singular problem.

In this case, the pain clinics
in South Florida.

But we had more pill mills
in South Florida

that we did
McDonald's restaurants.

As much as I wanted to try
and shut all of them,

obviously,
that wasn't possible.

We were going to have to
pair that down.

So, we obtained a list

of the top 12 oxycodone
dispensing positions.

The top five worked for
the same group of clinics.

American Pain.
East Coast Pain.

And then, executive pain.

All were owned and operated
by Chris and Jeff George.

Chris and Jeff George
are twin brothers.

They were 28 years old.

Physically, they were
imposing characters

by the looks of them.

They cared quite a bit
about health and fitness.

Chris had been arrested
in the past

for sort of nuisance charges.

Growing up, they were
just kind of low-level

sort of thugs.

But they came from
a wealthy family.

Their father owned
a business that

built homes in South Florida.

So, he got them out
of all kinds of trouble.

But nothing to this level

I really wanted
as many resources

in on this case as possible.

Kurt McKenzie was
also an FBI agent

on the organized crime squad.

I had a very high regard

for Ken's studiousness
and his dedication

and his focus.

[Kurt] We went
to the pain clinics

to at least put eyes on them

to help give me
mental reference

for what I was dealing with.

The best way
I can describe it,

it looks sort of like...

a zombie movie.

Droves of people who obviously
hadn't had a shower in days,

with their eyes half closed.

Just flooding
into the front door.

They were disheveled.

They were strung out.

They could barely
stand upright,

let alone stay
in a straight line.

We could see people
using their pills

in the clinic parking lot
as soon as they obtained them.

People snorting their pills,
people selling their pills.

It was so obvious
that it was becoming

a feature on local news.

[reporter] Bouncers at
executive pain management

aren't talking.

I'm not answering
any of your questions

but we need
for y'all to leave.

[reporter 2] Well,
can I ask the manager?

Can't talk to anybody.

[Jennifer] It's very
difficult for your mind

to rectify.

The idea of a medical clinic

that should be there
to help people

with a place that was

dispensing copious amounts
of these addictive substances.

Any reasonable person
would instantly know

that this was nothing
but a drug trafficking facade.

And anybody who denies that

is lying, or stupid.

It wasn't right.

Addicts needed help.

Yet, there were supposedly

physicians inside,
writing prescriptions

for these pills.

This drug was killing kids.

It was killing people.

And it was very
frustrating to see that

nothing was being done.

[Jennifer] We needed
to shut these clinics down.

Our local police departments

keep telling me this is legal
in the state of Florida.

So, why is that?

Simply put, at the time,

Florida did not have

a prescription
monetary program

that monitors
the numbers of pills

that individual
patients are receiving.

So, even though
you have individuals

who are drug seekers,

the police weren't able
to do anything about

the clinics themselves,

let alone the physicians

because they were all
operating legally.

Very few of the patients were
actually from South Florida.

The tags on the vehicles that
you'd see in the parking lot

were from as far west
as Texas.

But primarily, Appalachia.

So, Kentucky,
Tennessee, Virginia.

Because that was where
the heart of the burgeoning

opioid crisis
in the United States was.

[Jennifer] These people
were coming

all the way to South Florida
to get highly addictive
substances

that they wouldn't be able to
receive in their home state.

I was pretty quickly deflated.

Because this appears
to be so flagrantly illegal,

but I really wasn't sure

where the illegal
activity was.

I had to go back
to the drawing board.

I decided to conduct
a logical investigation

and let's see what kind of

evidence with illegal activity

we find if any at all.

When you're working
a case of this scale

and we turn it into
an official operation
in the FBI,

agents are allowed to come up
with their own operation
names.

[Kurt] So, I-95 is about
a ten-lane highway

going North and South.

Runs all the way from
the bottom of Miami

all the way through the top
of the state of Florida

into Georgia.

And it's a very
popular highway

with pain clinic customers

who are arriving here
from Appalachia

and other states to get drugs.

You would see pain clinics
popping up in strip malls

all along roads
that led to I-95.

So, we'd nicknamed the highway

oxy-ally.

Because of the volume
of oxycodone

was being trafficked

along the highway.

So, we ended up
with Operation Oxy-alley.

What we really needed
was to obtain evidence

of what crime might be
committed inside
of the clinic.

So, some of the local police
officers volunteered

to pose as patients.

We wanted to see exactly how
lacks the procedures were

for handing our narcotics
to patients.

We would send in one
undercover officer at a time.

Walk in, they would
pay their fee,

and they would sit and wait...

before being seen
by a physician.

The doctors in a legitimate
medical clinic

provide care that's
individualized for you

and your ailment.

That didn't happen
in the Chris George clinics.

[Kurt] We saw a little to no
examinations being conducted.

We saw pills being handed out
after a very short

interview.

[Jennifer] The pill-seekers
directed how much pills
they received.

And as long as they
consistently asked for...

more and more and more pills,

they obtained more
and more pills.

And that was the same thing

for every patient
day after day, after day

in all of the clinics.

The list of irregularities
within these clinics

goes on and on.

But where is
the illegal activity?

The doctors were working
inside a licensed

lawful establishment.

They were actually seeing
the patients face-to-face.

They were
writing prescriptions.

So, we did not see
evidence initially

that any physicians
were breaking law.

[Renee] It was
very frustrating.

These pain clinics knew that
addicts were coming in and...

making their scores
right there,

and that was so
painfully wrong.

It was horrible.

I don't understand how
they have a conscience,

that they could do this.

But as long as the doctor had
his license up on the wall,

everything was fine to run.

When I initiated
the investigation,

clearly, I did not understand
the scope of the problem.

But as the investigation grew,

my education
of the problem grew.

And a sense of urgency

grew as well.

It just didn't feel like
I could exhale...

until...

until we found the evidence
that we needed

to put a stop to it.

I wanted to know
as much as I could

about how things were
operating inside
of those clinics.

So, I really wanted our IRS
partners to join us.

[David] My name
is David Keyes.

I'm a retired special agent
with IRS Criminal
Investigation.

The basis of what we do
is to follow the money.

Right? It's literally
our mantra.

Either to prove tax evasion
or tax fraud,

or money laundering.

[Jennifer] My thought
initially was,

we were dealing
with clinics that were

potentially involved
in healthcare fraud.

But these clinics
did not take insurance,

they did not
take credit cards.

They only took cash
as a form of payment.

Literally currency.

There were no medical programs
being built.

No Medicare, no Medicaid.

So, there was no
healthcare fraud.

But where there's cash,

I'm starting to feel
more and more confident

that we're gonna have
money laundering.

[David] Money laundering.

So, anytime you get proceeds
of illegal activity,

any financial transactions
that occur

are illegal under
the money laundering laws.

From surveillance
on the George clinics,

we became aware
that these clinics

had three, four,
500 patients a day

paying $500 in cash

for the office visit.

Then, anywhere from
a 1,000 or more

to buy pills

from the inhouse pharmacy.

Cash drawers were emptied
into huge trash bins

with trash bags

that would fill up
multiple times a day.

We would see from
subpoenaing bank records.

150,000, 200,000 a day
depositing in bank accounts

to the point that
multiple banks

were shutting them down

for anti-money laundering
risk management.

They were running
out of places to
put all of this cash.

Cash would get lost.

Cash would get stolen.

There are photos of employees

playing in piles of cash
on the floor,

like kids in a snowstorm.

It's a logistical problem
storing it, keeping it secure.

But one of the easiest ways
to get it secure

is to buy an asset.

Analyzing the bank records,

there were cars
that were bought.

Property being bought.
Houses, land.

Luxury, high-end
truck vehicles.

Jet skis.

Jeff George purchased
a strip club.

They would take trips
all over the country,

flying in a private jet.

Basically, anything they could
spend the money on.

As an IRS investigator,

my goal was to take back
those assets.

But you have to prove that
the money you're talking about

is the proceeds
of illegal activity,

and then, the assets bought
with that money are tainted.

And subject to seizure
and forfeiture.

[Jennifer] So, while the IRS
were investigating

potential money laundering,

we're still looking for
evidence of illegal activity.

And one of the best tools
in our arsenal

is a wire intercept.

We did believe that
Chris George's cellphone

was probably the best one
to go up on.

Because Chris kind of
rose to the top

more so than his brother.

But utilizing a wire intercept
is extremely intrusive.

I have to attain
permission from a judge

for that.

We needed evidence of...

Chris George utilizing
his cellphone to direct

illegal activity.

In July of 2009,

one of our undercover
task force officers

went to American Pain.

This time, the doctor did
ask him a few questions

and one of those
questions was,

"Do you drink alcohol?"

And the undercover said,

"Well, yeah, I might have
a beer or two at night."

For whatever reason,

the doctor got a little
uncomfortable with this.

Saying, you know, "When you
mix alcohol with these drugs,

it can cause
all kinds of problems.

Let me call in
our resident expert,

and we'll see
what he has to say."

And sure enough, who walks in
but Chris George?

Chris George is not
a medical doctor.

He's not...

authorized by law

to recommend or deny

or issue a prescription
to anybody.

Or direct anybody to do so.

Chris says, "Don't worry,

I got another place
that you can go.

Let me make a call."

And he utilizes his cell phone

and he ends up calling
Executive Pain.

And Chris George
says to the undercover,

"It's no problem,
it's all the same.

They're expecting you,
just go up there."

"Those doctors there
at Executive Pain

will see you

and will get
your prescription.

You'll get your medication."

Right there, we knew,
we had evidence of a crime.

[Jennifer] We could
finally show a court,

unquestionably, that
Chris George was utilizing

his personal cellphone

to conduct illegal activity.

So, we could get a wire tap
on his phone.

It was huge.

That was a good day
in July of 2009.

When you've flipped the switch
and go live on someone's
phone,

we literally have a wire room

where we are listening
to calls live.

If the call is flagged as
Containing Illegal Activity,

they will type out
the entire conversation

for future potential use.

It's evidence that you're
not able to obtain

any other way.

It's invaluable.

And early on, it allowed
us to understand

the physicians,
their motivations.

[Christopher] I own
the biggest office
in the country.

Average doctor earning between

two and $6,000 per day.

[Augusto] Oh, okay.

I'm really interested
in making a lot of money.

We learned the physicians
at American Pain

were paid $75 per patient

that they wrote
prescriptions for.

[Kurt] The more productive
doctors could see
as many as...

fifty patients a day.

So, you do the math.

And they were also
paid a $1,000 per week

if they allowed Chris George
to use their DEA

license number to order pills
into the clinic.

[Kurt] You have these
doctors making

thousands and thousands
of dollars per week

for working anywhere from
six to less than eight hours.

[David] The motivations varied
for the doctors.

But it was usually
because they needed

more money, quickly.

Could be their retirements
weren't good anymore.

Investments weren't good,

Debts, gambling problems,

whatever it might be,

they were lured in,
thanks to the money.

As a parent,
I was just very angry.

Because there was
just no conscience

with anybody
that worked there.

They were being paid so much

that they didn't care.

They just wanted their money.

It was the power
of the almighty dollar.

We hold doctors on a pedestal
for good reason.

You know, the education
they have to obtain,

the experience they have.

And they're involved,
in some way, shape or form,

saving lives,

making people's lives better,
improving...

quality of life.

These doctors
weren't doing that.

These doctors were
ruining lives.

There is a federal stature
that involved physicians

prescribing outside the scope
of professional practice.

And we started to hear
evidence of that.

[Christopher] Are you familiar
with pain management?

[Augusto] I don't have any
experience in pain management,

at all.

[Christopher]
Well, that's okay.
It's okay if you don't.

[Jennifer] So, we knew
that the physicians

were prescribing
controlled substances

not related to the scope
of the professional practice

that that physician
is involved with.

Which is illegal.

But we want to work a case
that encompasses

all of the illegal activities

that are being done
by the entire criminal
enterprise,

not just the doctors.

We did hear conversations
on the wire

about the extent
of illegal activity

in both Chris George's world
and Jeff George's world.

They were talking about
lying on paperwork.

[Christopher] Remember,
we're lying about

how many are out of state.

If you give them our real
dispensing log,

it's gonna show that
everybody's from out of state.

You hear them talking about
the patients.

[Michael] These hillbillies,
don't give a[bleep]
about their health.

That there was no patient
care provided.

And in fact, the more patients
his doctors were able
to see in a day,

the more money he made.

[Christopher] I want them
to make a lot of money.

The more they make,
the more I make.

All of these things
in their own words

and their own voice.

That's incredible evidence.

But we were doing something
brand new here

and we didn't know how much
evidence was enough.

Was it gonna work?
Was it gonna stick?

We really,
honestly didn't know.

We wanted all of the evidence
that we could possibly obtain

in order to bring the case
to an indictment.

So, we continue to listen.

By this time, we have been
working the case

for not quite a full year.

And as 2009 started to unfold,

we were receiving more calls

from police departments
throughout the country.

Because more and more
people were dying

of overdose deaths.

And they would find
the deceased with

pill bottles from doctors

working for one of
the George Brother clinics.

The deaths were
trickle at first,

and then, they absolutely
became a constant stream.

There was a huge
toll of deaths.

Car accidents
all over the place.

Not only here
in South Florida,

but up I-95.

One day,
a car load of patients

from Tennessee had just
left Chris' clinic.

They'd all started popping
the pills in the cars.

And at a train crossing,
they stopped on the tracks.

[Kurt] They were so under
the influence,

they didn't realize the train
was coming.

The train hits them.

The next day
on the wire intercept,

we hear
Chris George discussing

this train crash.

[Derik] They tried to
[bleep] weave through

a railroad crossing

and got hit
by a[bleep] train.

Two of them were dead.

[Christopher] You have to be
an idiot to get hit
by a train.

[Jennifer] It really
gives you an insight

into how cruel and crass

these individuals were.

No sympathy, no remorse.

Nothing of that
nature, just...

what a bunch of f-ing idiots.

And what a bunch of morons...

to try and do that.

And so, that...

It... it...

It makes you sad,
it makes you angry.

And when you see
the overdosed deaths,

and you see
the coroner's reports,

and the autopsy reports,

and the pictures

of the deceased individuals,

it takes a huge toll,

emotionally, personally.

[Jennifer] Working a case
of this scale,

it was very important that

we give each other the...

the space and even the grace
to have bad days.

To be temperamental, to vent,

to do whatever we needed to do
to get it out.

I was the only
female federal agent

who worked on the case.

So, I was able to check in
on the guys

in ways that you know, only...

kind of a motherly or sisterly
sort of way that...

that only a woman can do.

But if anything
the overdose does

only added fuel to our fire.

It also started to increase
with a sense of urgency

of bringing everything
to an end.

Towards the end of 2009,

we heard
Chris George starting to

have conversations
with real estate agents.

He wanted to expand
the business yet again.

He wanted a facility
was big enough

to sustain his operations
for quite some time.

[Jennifer] There was
a real estate agent

who suggested that there
was a bank that...

was closed.

It had been closed
for a number of years.

And he ended up signing
a lease form at the end
of the year.

Because of the holidays,
I knew no one

would be around.

So, on New Year's day,

I drove up
to the new facility.

And as I drove around
the parking lot,

I just thought,
"Oh, dear God!"

It was enormous.

It was a 20,000-square
foot facility.

It just causes you to lose
your breath for a few
heart beats.

What's going through my mind?

Because they're gonna
hire more doctors

because they're gonna
see more patients.

Chris George just appeared
to be completely unstoppable

and... and...

that was all the more reason
why we needed...

to bring it to an end.

[Kurt] The facility
was up and running

in February 2010.

There were massive
crowds of people.

Many of them looked
to be under the influence.

Some people even passing out
on the floor of their clinic.

They were utilizing what used
to be a bank vault

to store their own money
and their own pills.

They could handle two to three
times the volume

that they previously did.

[Kurt] We could have waited

another six months to a year

to gather even more evidence.

But we couldn't
let that happen.

The longer that facility
was open,

the more pills were
going out the door,

and the more problems
were going to be

resulting from that.

So, that sort of put
a little urgency

to shut this whole
operation down

on a shorter timeline
than we'd originally planned.

The paramount concern were
the numbers of overdosed
deaths.

[Kurt] You had seven
people a day on average.

In Florida alone,

dying of an oxy-related
overdose.

So, we decided to serve
search and seizure warrants

and bring the entire
enterprise in one day.

March 3rd ended up
being the day.

March 3rd, 2010.

[Kurt] We had hundreds
of agents and officers.

Numerous locations were
raided at the same time.

[Jennifer] All the George
brothers clinics.

American Pain,
East Coast Pain,

Executive Pain.

We weren't going to be
arresting people,

but it was the only
opportunity

to get the remainder
of the evidence that
we did not have.

There's a heavy
responsibility.

Case had never been
worked like this before.

We didn't know
if we would find

the evidence that we needed
to put people in jail.

But it went so much...

better than I could have
ever hoped for.

We seized 28,000 individual
paper patient files.

We could see file
after file after file.

And everything looked
almost the same

in every single file.

It was evidence.

They were prescribing
the same thing to everyone.

So, there was no
individualized care.

So, they were writing
these prescriptions

for no legitimate
medical purpose.

And that was very, very
clear in the patient files.

[Kurt] My job on that day

was to supervise the search
of Chris George's residence.

He was not there.

He had already
left for the day.

But we found a lot.

We found several bottles
of different kinds of

prescription medications,

steroids, and things
of that nature.

We found three firearms.

Two shotguns and a stolen
nine-millimeter pistol.

Chris George was
a convicted felon

and he as such was not
allowed to have firearms.

We found explosive material.

I actually had to call
the bomb squad

to remove the explosive
material from the house.

And I found a white
supremacist flag

in his garage.

With any search
warrant service,

you hope to gather
evidence of a crime.

And that's what we
got that day.

I was part of the money
laundering investigation.

Huge amounts of bank
records were analyzed

before the raid.

So, we seized
all kinds of assets

that we could prove

to a court that came
through illegal funds.

We seize Chris George's home,
Jeff George's home.

Jewelry, Rolexes,

a Range Rover.

Numerous bank accounts.

Over $3 million of currency.

In total, we seized probably
a little bit in excess
of ten million.

[Jennifer] The evidence
of evidence that we obtained,

the amount of cash and assets
that were seized,

the amount of pills that were
seized that day.

Holy cow! I really got myself
into something there.

[giggling]

Once we shut them down,
the focus was on...

reviewing the evidence.

[Jennifer] First, we wanted

to take the list
of patient names

and find out how many

of these individuals
have died.

We ran their...

names, date of birth,
social security numbers

to find out who was dead.

There were...

more than any of us
hoped to see.

You're talking somewhere
in the neighborhood of 3,000

deaths of folks who...

saw one of these doctors
during that

little over a year time frame

and are now dead.

[Kurt] And that
only represents

the people who actually walked
in the door to the clinic.

That doesn't represent
the street market

that was fed
by this organization.

So, there were
tens of thousands

of people

who got drugs from this place.

And the number of deaths
is off the scale.

In many of the patient files,
we would find...

a simple notation.

D slash C. D/C.

And when we went back
and spoke to clinic employees,

we found out D/C meant
either discharged

or deceased.

We understood at that point

that everybody that worked
in this facility

knew that patients were dying

of overdose or...

accidents related
to their drug use,

and nobody cared.

They just went on
with business as usual.

Because they were
making a lot of money.

I had a level of disgust
at what I was seeing.

But it also served to motivate
me even more

than I was already motivated.

Because at that point,
I was determined

these people
were going to jail.

This was not gonna
happen again.

They had to go to jail.

Because they knew people
were dying and they
didn't care.

It wasn't until 2011

that we either arrested
individuals or they turned
themselves in.

The physicians were reluctant
to come in initially

and even when they
did come in,

they were very quiet.

They were in complete denial
that they were at fault.

[Jennifer] But we knew
what the backgrounds

of each of
the physicians were.

So, we knew they
were prescribing

outside the scope of their
professional practice

and we knew
they were prescribing

the same thing to everyone.

These were some
seriously flawed people...

who put their greed

above their concern

for whether or not their
patients lived or died.

[Jennifer] But we needed
their cooperation.

[Kurt] We wanted them
to point the fingers

at the George brothers
and say...

"I was a criminal,

and this person's
a criminal as well

because they did exactly
what I did.

And we did it together."

[Jennifer] It went on
four months on end.

And literally,
I felt as though

I wasn't doing my job

if I wasn't living
and breathing,

trying to put
these individuals in jail.

In order to solicit
the doctor's cooperation,

we were just very upfront.

This is the government's case.

This is what we're going
to be charging you with.

This was your role
in the conspiracy.

And this is why we think
it's in your best interest

to plead guilty.

They reluctantly...

understood what
we were saying.

Reluctantly.

[Jennifer] The overwhelming
majority of the defendants

eventually wanted
to cooperate.

Chris and Jeff George

were the last ones to come
through the door.

Because they bore the majority
of the responsibility.

[Kurt] When we told
Chris George

that we were estimating
that almost 3,000 people died,

he actually laughed.

And I believe the comment
made to us was,

"Well, you know Al Qaeda
killed more people

on September 11th."

He thought of the patients
as weak.

His attitude was,
"Well, if you do drugs,
you know, that's your fault.

And if I don't
sell them to you,

somebody else will.

So, I'm just here to get paid.

Whatever happens to you is
your fault and your problem."

[Jennifer] All they did
was continue to...

rationalize and justify
what they were doing.

"Well, the state says
this is legal.

The state's allowing us
to do this.

They're telling us
how to operate a business.

And all of a sudden,
you guys are coming in,

telling us this is illegal?

That's not true."

[Kurt] The approach we took
with the George brothers

was to explain to them

how damning this evidence
was against...

them.

And that it would be
in their best interest

to plead guilty,
because if this went to trial,

they were looking
at the potential

of life in prison without
the possibility of parole.

[Jennifer] It took
hours upon hours

to finally

bring them around to...

"Yes, we knew that we were...

running a drug
trafficking organization.

Yes, we know what we were
doing was being drug dealers."

[reporter] New developments
today in the case

against Fort Lauderdale's
biggest prescription
drug ring.

Twin brothers,
Chris and Jeff George

plead guilty.

But get reduced sentences

in return for cooperating
with the government.

[Jennifer] 32 individuals
were indicted,

including the George brothers,
physicians,

and clinic employees.

The main offenses were
drug trafficking

and the money
laundering offenses.

[Jennifer] 28 of them

decided to enter a guilty plea
with the government.

And they were all
sentenced to some...

amount of jail time.

Jeff George got 15 years.

[David] And Chris George
got 17 years.

You could argue they
should have got more.

But the system was
what the system is.

[Jennifer] You do feel
a great sense of satisfaction

in seeing them
held accountable,

especially because they
were all so arrogant.

They had the sense
of entitlement

that they were untouchable.

And the feeling
of satisfaction was...

you're not untouchable.

We got a lot of publicity for
shutting down American Pain.

Not only did the other
purveyors of these
drugs realize

"My day is coming next,"

but we were also creating
a template for how you work

these investigations
successfully.

[David] Florida
changed its laws.

We got a prescription database
monitoring program

to prevent the same patient
getting multiple prescriptions

of the same medication.

It was huge thing.

My friends and I, as moms,

we decided to do
the grassroots effort

and decided to rally
these pain clinics

and make that
public awareness.

With the FBI involved,

that opened up the doors
for the police,

to be more aggressive.

We started seeing, you know,
doctors being arrested

and the owners
of the pain clinics

being arrested.

We helped close over
a 150 pain clinics

right here in Broward County.

We were seeing a decrease
not only in...

pills getting out
onto the street,

but also the number
of overdose deaths.

From 2010 to 2011,

the death rates from oxycodone
overdose dropped

forty percent in
the state of Florida.

Forty percent.

The FBI had the resources
and the people...

and the connections to be able
to successfully

work an investigation
of this size.

But special agent Turner
was the one who started this.

And I don't think this would
have worked as well

if it wasn't for her.

[Jennifer] For a period of
a year and a half

to two years or more...

I had no life.

This was my life.

I stopped working out,

because all I did
was this case.

The first time I went
for a run again,

was the day we arrested
Chris George.

Because I finally felt
like I could breathe again.

The weight of...

the epidemic,
the overdose deaths,

the human toil
involved in this case

was unlike anything any of us
had ever worked before.

But if the agent I was at
the end of the investigation

could speak

to the agent I was
at the beginning
of the investigation,

I would tell myself that...

"You're going to find
a certain amount
of personal fortitude

within yourself

that you never

knew existed.

But you have within you
all along."

MS13 is the most violent street
gang I've ever investigated.

MS13 they are like animals

because they make young kids
into psychos.

My job is to protect those kids!