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WPEC-TV CBS12 News :: News - Treasure Coast News - UPDATED: Statewide pill mill bust nets Vero Beach Dr. Bruce Kammerman

UPDATED: Statewide pill mill bust nets Vero Beach Dr. Bruce Kammerman

By JANA ESCHBACH/AL PEFLEY/CBS12.com
VERO BEACH, Fla. -- A local doctor arrested, a Vero Beach pain clinic shut down as DEA agents conducting a year-long investigation bust seven of these clinics around the state. Agents say they are a drug trafficking ring dealing in pain pills and they were all operated by the same organization.

Today's bust brought Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi to our area for a news conference in Vero Beach. This was clearly a very big group of pain clinics in several Florida cities, and authorities say these clinics and the people who ran them were motivated by one thing...pure greed.

A dozen people have been arrested so far, including seven doctors. Today's bust has been nicknamed "Operation Pill Street Blues." It involved raids on clinics scattered around the state, including Stuart Pain Management in Vero Beach.

Customers who wanted pain pills would visit these clinics, coming from as far away as Kentucky, Tennessee, and Georgia. Attorney General Pam Bondi described the people they've arrested as "despicable and sickening."

Authorities say a kingpin and leader of the group of pain clinics was Lewis Stouffer of Coconut Creek. Stouffer is a Pompano Beach firefighter, and so is another individual they're arrested, Craig Turturo of Boca Raton.

Officials say these pain clinics were spreading misery for profit and they will continue to try to stop to the illegal distribution of prescription pain pills.

Powerful stuff, Oxycontin, Xanax, Valium, Percocet, and Vicodin. Police say it was prescribed with little or no medical examination.

Dr. Bruce Kammerman from Palm City was arrested this morning in Vero Beach by the DEA on charges he was inappropriately prescribing large quanitities of pain killers from Stuart Pain Management Clinic, allegedly attracting clients and addicts from as far away as Kentucky.

Sheriff Deryl Loa/IRCSO: Hundreds if not thousands. The dollars that were going through this facility were enormous and that is all come to an end today.

Special Agent Randall Bohman/ DEA: Executing a state search warrant on Stuart Pain Management here and this is just one part  of a larger statewide operation that we're doing with our law enforcement community.

The DEA says this raid was held simultaneously as seven others in the state shutting down doctors and clinics in Daytona Beach, Gainesville, Orlando, Miami, Sarasota, Pensacola, and Vero Beach. The DEA says all the clinics are criminally linked together by a two-year undercover investigation.

Special Agent Randall Bohman/ DEA: They're setting themselves up as pain clinics, but they are illegally distributing drugs into the community, just like any drug trafficker.

Every physician tied to the clinics has an emergency suspension order for their medical license and most are under arrest.

Sheriff Deryl Loar/IRSO: We've been watching this pill mill, and it is a pill mill--its not a pain clinic-- there's no secret here, and we've been monitoring this with the help of DEA as well as Vero Beach Police department. It's been on our radar for quite some time.

The doctor here from Vero Beach is in custody, with 8 arrests total today across the state and dozens more to come.UPDATED: Statewide pill mill bust nets Vero Beach Dr. Bruce Kammerman

Wednesday, June 27 2012, 05:52 PM EDT

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