In October, 60 Minutes joined forces with the Washington Post and reported a disturbing story of Washington at its worst – about an act of Congress that crippled the DEA’s ability to fight the worst drug crisis in American history – the opioid addiction crisis. Now, a new front of that joint investigation. It is also disturbing.
It’s the inside story of the biggest case the DEA ever built against a drug company: the McKesson Corporation, the country’s largest drug distributor. It’s also the story of a company too big to prosecute.
In 2014, after two years of painstaking inquiry by nine DEA field divisions and 12 U.S. Attorneys, investigators built a powerful case against McKesson for the company’s role in the opioid crisis.
Our reporting turned up the leader of the DEA team, David Schiller, who tells for the first time how his investigators hit a brick wall in Washington when they tried to hold the powerful company accountable. An air-tight Federal prosecution case ended with just a slap-on-the-wrist fine and no arrests.