FLORIDA — Investigators said seven doctors and seven pain clinic owners were arrested, following a massive statewide pill mill raid.
WFTV reporter Blaine Tolison rode along with federal agents in Daytona Beach.
There were also raids in Vero Beach, Sarasota, Gainesville, Jacksonville and Fort Myers on Wednesday.
Officials said the doctors were handing out hundreds of thousands of prescription pills.
The doctors were linked to pill mills across the state of Florida, including one in Daytona Beach that WFTV saw agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration raid.
In cities from Miami to Pensacola, more pill mills are getting put out of business, and this time by the DEA.
"It's like the drug cartels have shifted a little bit. The pharmaceutical companies are all powerful, making lots of them. They produce them and these guys sell them," said Special Agent Oscar Negron of the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Agents said doctors have been moving prescription pills to the black market by the box load.
"We don't see them as doctors, we see them as drug traffickers. And the greed, that's what drives them also," said Negron.
The two-year ongoing DEA investigation involved agencies across the state.
In Daytona Beach, agents raided the Southern Back and Spine Institute on Peninsula Avenue, right across the street from a detox center.
Jim Hawks, the detox center's director, said he sees prescription pill abuse firsthand.
"You have to have it, you feel like you have to have it, so you steal from your family, you steal from your friends," said Hawks.
The DEA said it is making progress in the battle to end prescription pill abuse in Florida.
The names of the 14 arrested were not released.