KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) _ U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill says federal drug
enforcement officials didn’t hold major drug distributors accountable while
prescription opioids flowed into Missouri between 2012 and 2017.
McCaskill released a report Wednesday she says found three major
distributors reported wildly different numbers of suspicious shipments of
opioids to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency. She says the federal agency didn’t
use its authority to issue immediate suspension orders to stop the distributors
from making questionable shipments.
The Kansas City Star reports DEA spokesman Rusty Payne says the agency
increased its drug diversion squads from 46 in 2012 to 77 currently to stem the
opioid crisis. He says the agency started 1,500 cases and made nearly 2,000
arrests per year in opioid cases in the last seven years.
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