Three pharmacists are facing charges for trafficking Oxycontin in Orange County, California.

According to the OC Register, prosecutors charged the three with defrauding medicare and medi-cal of nearly $9 million dollars.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Tuesday that phony patients were paid to visit a Los Angeles clinic where they were prescribed large amounts of the pain killer.

The pharmacies billed the patients insurance.  When they picked up the pills at various pharmacies, the drugs were turned over for illegal sale on the street.

The pharmacists arrested were from the communities of Irvine, Huntington Beach, and Fountain Valley.

It’s a small crack in the armor of thousands of pill operations in America.