Clinic suspected of supplying drug addicts and dealers in KY and TN goes up in flames
A clinic suspected of illegally supplying millions of pills to drug addicts and dealers in Kentucky and Tennessee burned early Thursday, according to media reports.
Federal and state authorities raided Dr. Bruce Coffey’s clinic in Oneida in the summer of 2018 in an investigation of whether he was improperly prescribing pain pills and other drugs.
Coffey was not been charged, but federal authorities recently began the process of trying to take $1.6 million seized from accounts related to Coffey and the clinic.
Police believe Coffey’s clinic was a key supplier to drug traffickers in the southern part of Kentucky and in Tennessee for years.
Police have identified drug-trafficking organizations in Pulaski, Russell and McCreary counties in Kentucky that used Coffey’s clinic as the main source of prescriptions for drugs they sold, according to an affidavit from Shawn W. Rogers, a special agent with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
The fire will not affect the DEA’s investigation of Coffey, agency spokesman Kevin McWilliams said Thursday.
Coffey’s clinic reportedly closed several months ago.
Television stations WVLT and WKYT reported that the fire started at the clinic about 2:30 and affected that office and a pharmacy next door.
This story was originally published January 30, 2020 at 9:03 AM.
