Law enforcement raids pill mill in Winter Haven | News

WINTER HAVEN, Fla. - They watched the Key Medical Clinic in Winter Haven since last summer and, on Tuesday, investigators from the Polk County Sheriff's Office and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement raided the place.

Deputies and FDLE agents arrested eight people, but investigators say the pain pill trafficking ring involved hundreds of people.

At a news conference Wednesday afternoon, Sheriff Grady Judd outlined how the operation worked. He says the clinic's owner, Patricia Osborn, illegally forged prescriptions for controlled narcotics like Oxycodone.

The operation would then recruit hundreds of other people to fan out to pharmacies across central Florida to get the fraudulent prescriptions filled. They'd bring the pills back to the clinic, where buyers could get their hands on the powerful drugs in just minutes.

"Detectives during this investigation, both FDLE and our detectives, surveilled Key Medical Clinic and we observed patients walk in and patients walk out. They stayed two to seven minutes," said Judd.

Judd says this was a big money operation. In the span of just 10 months, he estimated the ring brought in between seven and nine million dollars.

Judd says this investigation is far from over and he promised to track down the hundreds of people who helped buy the drugs. "I've got your names," he said holding a thick stack of papers. "Maybe they'll need to get a prescription pill to sleep tonight."