When you think of Boeing what comes to mind? Airplanes, of course. Ah, but a lot more goes on at Boeing besides aircraft!
Agents from the FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) arrested employees and former employees of Boeing’s Ridley Park, Pennsylvania plant and one non-employee in a coordinated, long-term, undercover effort aimed at prescription drug abuse at the manufacturing plant.
Of course, the company, Boeing, is in no way culpable here, but this certainly is press that the company does not need as it continues to battle Airbus for supremacy in the aircraft industry. Of course, like many companies, including General Electric, Boeing is most definitely diversified in to many industries.
Indictments against 23 individuals were unsealed today charging each with the illegal distribution of a prescription drug. The drugs being distributed by these defendants include but are not limited to fentanyl (Actiq), oxycodone (Oxycontin), alprazolam (Xanax), and buprenorphine (Suboxone). The charges allege that each defendant either sold a controlled substance to an FBI cooperator or bought what was believed to be a controlled substance from the cooperator but which was, in fact, a placebo.
The drugs were being distributed on Boeing’s property. Boeing officials brought their suspicions of drug activity to federal law enforcement and have cooperated fully with the long-term investigation.
Drug abuse and the illegal sale and purchase of controlled substances are serious criminal problems in the U.S. today. The abuse of prescription narcotic drugs can be as dangerous and devastating as the use of illegal drugs.
Well, if there is a positive side to this thing it is Boeing – they didn’t try to sweep something under the rug and stood up and helped law enforcement.