These Florida brothers operated one of the largest opiate "pill mills" in United States history. According to the FBI, it was related to dozens of deaths.

These Florida brothers operated one of the largest opiate "pill mills" in United States history. According to the FBI, it was related to dozens of deaths.

Waiting in large numbers outside the American Pain clinic in Boca Raton, Florida, are throngs of individuals. Inside, a doctor greets them individually and prescribes them painkillers, his revolver poking out from beneath his white coat.

American Pain is a one-stop shop that offers both prescriptions and analgesics. A massive doorman tells patrons not to snort their drugs in the parking lot. That would bring the type of attention that clinic owners Chris and Jeff George are attempting to avoid.

It is already too late. Local and federal detectives are nearby and closely observing every action.

Scenes from the upcoming CNN Films documentary "American Pain" depicting the rise and fall of the George brothers as opioid kingpins. Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Darren Foster combines FBI wiretap records and undercover footage, as well as the brothers' exclusive jailhouse interviews, to portray a portrait of a merciless pain-pill enterprise that made the Georges millions and allowed addicts from across the country.

"The opioid epidemic was not started by the George brothers. But they certainly added fuel to the fire," said retired FBI agent Kurt McKenzie, who participated in the probe – dubbed Operation Oxy Alley – that began when oxycodone from the twin brothers' clinics was found at drug overdose scenes. Investigators tapped the clinic's phones, secretly filmed video, and dispatched operatives posing as patients to purchase medications.

McKenzie noted, "They became the largest street-level distribution group in the entire United States." "They put more medications on the street than anyone else. "No one, and they were functioning during the day."

One sibling referred to their business as "the Disneyland of pain clinics."

Chris and Jeff George operated four pain clinics and other enterprises in South Florida jointly.

Federal investigators claim that their operation occurred during the height of the opioid epidemic, between 2008 and 2010, when the prescription painkiller market was flourishing. People around the nation were also beginning to recognize the negative impact legal drugs were having on local communities.

"Prior to this case, the public only knew that individuals were dying from drug overdoses; they were unaware of how the'system' functioned," McKenzie stated. "The blueprint was produced by the George brothers."

They recruited physicians to prescribe the drugs by advertising the clinic in local publications and providing them incentives for large and frequent prescriptions. According to court filings, to avoid raising red flags, the brothers' clinics only accepted cash and credit cards, not insurance plans. They hired ladies through Craigslist to administer the necessary medications.

At their clinics, which did not require appointments, the George brothers made it easy to obtain pharmaceuticals. Patients from Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, West Virginia, and other Appalachian states plagued by opiate abuse rushed to Florida.

In a phone conversation from prison, Jeff George states in the documentary, "I feel we've established a new sort of tourism." We were essentially the Disney World of pain clinics.

The film reveals that several drug dealers from Kentucky traveled to the clinics in hired buses bearing the words "Tree of Life Baptist Church" to conceal their illicit intent.

When questioned why he frequented the pill mills operated by the George brothers, one guy remarked, "It's like a candy store down there." FBI agent Jennifer Turner, who oversaw the federal investigation, was tasked with determining the individual's motivations.

Meanwhile, the brothers were earning millions and competing to live the most extravagant lives. They purchased expensive watches, showy automobiles, boats, and various residences. Jeff George drove a Lamborghini, whilst his brother Chris owned a massive custom monster truck.

The clinics worked like fraternity houses, according to Derik Nolan, a longtime associate of the twins who identifies himself as their right-hand man in the video. Employees at the clinic played with remote-controlled vehicles and shot each other with slingshots as patients waited for their next dose. Nolan added that the clinics' refrigerators had beer and Patrón shots.

The clinics' cash registers were too small to accommodate the influx of banknotes, so employees placed the cash in enormous garbage bags.

They boasted of profits in the millions of dollars.

According to an FBI agent cited in the film, one clinic routed patients without MRIs to a trailer outside a strip club where they could receive lap dances while waiting for new scans from fake radiologists.

The George brothers claimed that the imaging enhanced the authenticity of their prescription process.

According to federal investigators, the doctors' per-patient compensation offered an incentive to see as many patients as possible.

The physicians "did not seek the patient's prior medical information or prescribe alternate treatment." They did not make specialized recommendations. According to prosecution filings, virtually everyone examined by the co-conspirator physicians was prescribed controlled medications. There was no individualization of care as mandated by federal and Florida law.

In the film, Chris George boasts that the American Pain clinic alone made $40 million in revenue. According to court filings, American Pain was one of the top nine purchasers of oxycodone in the country, prescribing 18 million units.

Former FBI agent McKenzie stated, "Five of the top 20 prescribing physicians throughout the entire country worked at just one of Chris' clinics." "These are genuine physicians. They have legitimate licenses... and what appeared to be a legitimate clinic."

Chris George claims he took delight in the magnitude of his clinics.

In a prison interview, he tells the filmmakers, "I wanted my prescribing physicians to be the best in the country." That was an accomplishment in my eyes.

A bereaved father assisted in the closure of a pill mill.

John Friskey operates an information technology services company in Jacksonville, Florida. Friskey was a devastated parent who had recently lost his son, Andy, to opiate addiction when a pill mill opened in the same strip mall. Andy was a musician who enjoyed music.

"He was involved in an automobile crash in Tennessee. He suffered a burst spleen and was in discomfort, according to CNN's Friskey. "He obtained medication from pill mills. I was unaware that they were pill mills. I had no idea he was taking drugs. He took too much of it."

Zachary Rose, the owner of the adjacent pain clinic, vied with the George brothers for dominance among Florida pill mills. Rose's clinic lured out-of-state drug users to the neighborhood, and Friskey wanted him removed from the strip mall.

Friskey spotted an opportunity when the clinic requested his assistance with maintaining its computer networks and security cameras. He approached the DEA and volunteered to assist in its dismantlement.

DEA officers wired him and taped his chats while he worked on Rose's computers, while the doctors boasted about their daily earnings.

Friskey declared that he would remove their hard drives, replace them with new ones, and hand over the old ones to federal officials.

Friskey stated, "They never questioned me or attempted to stop me." "I was pleased to silence him."

In 2012, Rose pled guilty to a charge of narcotics conspiracy and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

The FBI estimates that 3,000 people died from overdoses related to the brothers' clinics.

Federal agents raided the brothers' residences in August 2011 and discovered illicit guns, drugs, and other stuff.

They also searched the house of Denice Haggerty, the mother of the twins, who worked at one of the pain clinics. There, they discovered safes containing $4 million stored in the attic.

The boys were among 31 people indicted under the federal RICO Act, which targets organized crime, including their mother. Thirteen physicians were also indicted, with all but two pleading guilty to lesser charges of money laundering or wire fraud.

Haggerty, the mother of the twins, pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to conduct wire fraud and was sentenced to 30 months in prison in the same year.

Chris George was sentenced to 17 years in prison after pleading guilty to one count of racketeering conspiracy. In September 2021, he was released after serving 11 years in prison.

Jeff George pled guilty to racketeering conspiracy and was sentenced to fifteen and a half years in prison. According to court documents, he was also convicted of second-degree criminal murder for the deadly overdose of a patient. He is still inside after receiving an additional 20-year term for the murder charge.

McKenzie estimated that 3,000 people died from overdoses related to the brothers' clinics. According to him, the FBI arrived at this figure by evaluating a random sample of 300 patient files from the brothers' clinics and noting how many patients had subsequently overdosed.

McKenzie emphasized that this number excludes the secondary and even tertiary drug markets, as many of the clinics' consumers sold their medications to others.

Chris George denied culpability for lethal overdoses of customers.

The now-42-year-old brothers leave a legal legacy in Florida.

In 2011, the state approved a "pill mill law" that prohibited pain clinics from prescribing opioids and imposed medical examination requirements.

Nolan, an accomplice of the Georges who also pleaded guilty to racketeering and served 10 years in prison, believes that law enforcement targeted the wrong individuals.

They did not wish to pursue the large pharmacy. They did not wish to pursue large distributors. They simply desired us — we are nobody. "The money we made is tiny compared to what big pharma has made over the years," he remarked in the documentary.

In recent years, prominent pharmaceutical corporations including Purdue Pharma, whose OxyContin pill has been widely criticized for igniting the opioid epidemic, have agreed to pay billions of dollars in legal settlements. Also, drugstore chains such as CVS and Walgreens have agreed to settle claims filed by state and municipal governments alleging improper handling of opioid prescriptions.

Chris George claims that he and his brother have no involvement in the fatal overdoses, more than a decade after the FBI shut down their operation.

"It is ultimately their duty. After his release from prison, he states in the film, "They are responsible for themselves, but I am not." "I do not believe we have produced more addicts. They had already arrived. They simply had a simpler way to obtain narcotics. And a safer method. Now, they have no idea what they are receiving."

Chris George, who is out on parole, continues to blame his former patients for the fatal consequences of his medications.

"They reported pain to my physicians. The MRI revealed that they were in discomfort. The physicians prescribed them medicine. What they did with it is beyond my control.

He continued, "They act as though I'm the terrible guy because I operated a business." In this country, it is possible for anyone to start a business.

Chris George stated that he and his friend Nolan will establish a real estate company.

And if the housing market fails, as it did during the peak of their opiate enterprise, Nolan informed the producers of "American Pain" that he has an alternative plan.

He stated, "We may have to return to the medical field."

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