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Author is a former Newsday journalist.
No one can corroborate the story? Did he make it up? Get sold a bill of goods? Or is everyone else covering up the true story?
A new book claims two honor roll teens from Freddie Gray's neighborhood masterminded the April 2015 looting of pharmacies across Baltimore, then created an "Uber-like" encrypted delivery app to spread the drugs throughout the country in partnership with the Black Guerrilla Family, the hacktivist collective Anonymous, and El Chapo's Sinaloa cartel.
The result, the book says, helped fuel the nationwide spike in urban violence and drug overdoses.
If you've never heard that story, Baltimore police say they haven't either. They say they investigated the pharmacy thefts and the drug sales and violence that followed and found no evidence of the operation described in the book.
"We have no intelligence that lends any credence to this story," said T.J. Smith, a Baltimore police spokesman.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Baltimore health officials whose work is referenced in the book, and authorities in three cities that the book says investigated the drug operation also said they have seen no evidence to support the thesis.
The author of Pill City, former Newsday reporter Kevin Deutsch, says the book is a true story, the product of more than a year of on-the-ground reporting across the country involving hundreds of interviews and thousands of records. He says the Baltimore drug heists represent the largest single coordinated theft of drugs in history.
Deutsch described the scheme as well-known throughout the country, but in an interview this week with The Baltimore Sun said he had to change the names of everyone he spoke to, as well as locations, physical descriptions and other details throughout the book. He said he did so to protect the still-at-large criminal sources who let him in on the plot, law enforcement officials who spoke without authorization, and addicts and doctors who knew about the operation but feared reprisal.
"People were so afraid to talk about it, they were hesitant to be involved in the project at all," Deutsch said. "I had to make some very hard choices with the book. My first priority was protecting people."
Told law enforcement and health advocates were bewildered by the book's claims, Deutsch said he "stands by my reporting 100 percent." He said he could not provide information that would help corroborate his account. "That's not my job to do," he said.
Baltimore officials question claims in new book about 2015 pharmacy thefts
No one can corroborate the story? Did he make it up? Get sold a bill of goods? Or is everyone else covering up the true story?
A new book claims two honor roll teens from Freddie Gray's neighborhood masterminded the April 2015 looting of pharmacies across Baltimore, then created an "Uber-like" encrypted delivery app to spread the drugs throughout the country in partnership with the Black Guerrilla Family, the hacktivist collective Anonymous, and El Chapo's Sinaloa cartel.
The result, the book says, helped fuel the nationwide spike in urban violence and drug overdoses.
If you've never heard that story, Baltimore police say they haven't either. They say they investigated the pharmacy thefts and the drug sales and violence that followed and found no evidence of the operation described in the book.
"We have no intelligence that lends any credence to this story," said T.J. Smith, a Baltimore police spokesman.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Baltimore health officials whose work is referenced in the book, and authorities in three cities that the book says investigated the drug operation also said they have seen no evidence to support the thesis.
The author of Pill City, former Newsday reporter Kevin Deutsch, says the book is a true story, the product of more than a year of on-the-ground reporting across the country involving hundreds of interviews and thousands of records. He says the Baltimore drug heists represent the largest single coordinated theft of drugs in history.
Deutsch described the scheme as well-known throughout the country, but in an interview this week with The Baltimore Sun said he had to change the names of everyone he spoke to, as well as locations, physical descriptions and other details throughout the book. He said he did so to protect the still-at-large criminal sources who let him in on the plot, law enforcement officials who spoke without authorization, and addicts and doctors who knew about the operation but feared reprisal.
"People were so afraid to talk about it, they were hesitant to be involved in the project at all," Deutsch said. "I had to make some very hard choices with the book. My first priority was protecting people."
Told law enforcement and health advocates were bewildered by the book's claims, Deutsch said he "stands by my reporting 100 percent." He said he could not provide information that would help corroborate his account. "That's not my job to do," he said.
Baltimore officials question claims in new book about 2015 pharmacy thefts
