SAN DIEGO (AP) - U.S. border inspectors are not only seizing drugs coming into the country from Mexico - they're making arrests for drug smuggling that's going the other way.
A Los Angeles-area doctor and 14 others have been charged in a conspiracy to smuggle prescription drugs from California to Mexico, authorities said Friday.
The unusual operation sent a flood of opiates to Tijuana pharmacies in exchange for bundles of cash that were brought back into the U.S. American addicts were able to buy the pills over the counter on jaunts across the border from San Diego, investigators told The Associated Press.
Authorities speculated it was easier for smugglers to unload large batches of pills at loosely regulated Mexican pharmacies than to distribute them in small amounts to American street dealers.
They said it's also profitable: A smuggler who buys a pill for about $2 in the United States can sell it to a Mexican pharmacy for about $3.50, and the American addict pays about $6 to bring it back home.
"We got Tijuana in the palm of our hand," Jason Lewis, one of the people accused of smuggling, said in a wiretapped conversation, according to a search warrant affidavit filed in the case. "We've been doing this for years, bro."
Investigators say the San Diego ring is the first they found that was smuggling drugs into Mexico.
The 17-month investigation resulted in the arrest this week of Dr. Tyron Reece, a 71-year-old general practitioner who runs a solo practice in the Los Angeles suburb of Inglewood. He did not immediately respond to a phone message Friday.
Reece wrote prescriptions last year for about 920,000 hydrocodone pills, which are commonly sold under the brand names Vicodin and Lortab, authorities said.
Investigators said the drug organization's ringleader, Anthony "Sam" Wright, 67, earned $1,000 a day by driving rented cars to Los Angeles from a distant suburb to get the pills to couriers who lived in San Diego's northern suburbs. Attempts to reach Wright were unsuccessful.
Smugglers strapped pills to their bodies or hid them in engine compartments before crossing the border. Their favorite checkpoint was San Ysidro, the nation's busiest crossing that connects San Diego and Tijuana. They usually crossed at night.
By law, Mexican border pharmacies must get prescriptions from Mexican doctors for powerful painkillers and psychotropic drugs. But it's not hard to find ones that will break the law.
A Los Angeles-area doctor and 14 others have been charged in a conspiracy to smuggle prescription drugs from California to Mexico, authorities said Friday.
The unusual operation sent a flood of opiates to Tijuana pharmacies in exchange for bundles of cash that were brought back into the U.S. American addicts were able to buy the pills over the counter on jaunts across the border from San Diego, investigators told The Associated Press.
Authorities speculated it was easier for smugglers to unload large batches of pills at loosely regulated Mexican pharmacies than to distribute them in small amounts to American street dealers.
They said it's also profitable: A smuggler who buys a pill for about $2 in the United States can sell it to a Mexican pharmacy for about $3.50, and the American addict pays about $6 to bring it back home.
"We got Tijuana in the palm of our hand," Jason Lewis, one of the people accused of smuggling, said in a wiretapped conversation, according to a search warrant affidavit filed in the case. "We've been doing this for years, bro."
Investigators say the San Diego ring is the first they found that was smuggling drugs into Mexico.
The 17-month investigation resulted in the arrest this week of Dr. Tyron Reece, a 71-year-old general practitioner who runs a solo practice in the Los Angeles suburb of Inglewood. He did not immediately respond to a phone message Friday.
Reece wrote prescriptions last year for about 920,000 hydrocodone pills, which are commonly sold under the brand names Vicodin and Lortab, authorities said.
Investigators said the drug organization's ringleader, Anthony "Sam" Wright, 67, earned $1,000 a day by driving rented cars to Los Angeles from a distant suburb to get the pills to couriers who lived in San Diego's northern suburbs. Attempts to reach Wright were unsuccessful.
Smugglers strapped pills to their bodies or hid them in engine compartments before crossing the border. Their favorite checkpoint was San Ysidro, the nation's busiest crossing that connects San Diego and Tijuana. They usually crossed at night.
By law, Mexican border pharmacies must get prescriptions from Mexican doctors for powerful painkillers and psychotropic drugs. But it's not hard to find ones that will break the law.