BIG PHARMA BOSSES JAILED FOR DRUG TRAFFICKING

        Big Pharma, many believe, are among the largest drug-trafficking gangs in the United States. Unlike the days of the Deep State, however, the Trump Administration doesn't let them get away with it---even for Big Pharma execs who try to buy them off. 

        Such a case in point was John N. Kapoor, founder and CEO of Insys Corporation. Kapoor was thrown in jail this week for Racketeering and illegally distributing Opioids. Along with Kapoor, six other top executives of Insys were also arrested and charged. 

        According to the indictment, Kapoor and his henchmen intentionally conspired to distribute a Fenatyl-based drug that was approved only for specific cancer treatments. Kapoor and the others bribed physicians; set up front-companies, and fraudulently misled insurers and investigators by claiming that their patients were suffering from cancer when they in fact were not. 

          US Attorney William Weinreb said in a press release: "Today's arrests reflect our efforts to tackle the Opioid Crisis from all angles. We must hold the industry and its leadership accountable---just as we would cartels and street-level dope-pushers."

         FBI Agent Harold Shaw, whose team unearthed the criminal enterprise, was even more blunt: "Selling highly addictive opioid cancer-pain drugs to people who did not have cancer makes them no better that street-corner drug dealers. Today's actions will put the industry on notice that the FBI will vigorously investigate corrupt organizations and hold executives responsible for their share in the Opioid Crisis."

         If convicted, the whole gang could face up to 20 years in prison. 

         What's an interesting side-note to this story is that Kapoor was a major Republican donor throughout his career. Mostly to RINOs, but he did donate to Trump in 2016. Why is this important? 

            It's important because it also illustrates that days when corrupt corporations could buy protection from politicians is over. Federal authorities are no longer looking the other way at people with the resources to buy influence. Another non-Opioid related example happened also last week when Exxon-Mobil---Rex Tillerson's old outfit---settled with the EPA in a nine-figure sum for egregious violations of the Clean Air Act at eight chemical plants. 

          Insys' actions are the subjects of two civil lawsuits filed in 2014 and 2015 respectively by families of two people who died of overdoses after corrupt doctors prescribed their products on Insys' instigation. The State of Illinois has also sued the company and there is pending legislation to bar the company from doing business in the state.