Michael Burt has been a Special Agent for the DEA for over 20 years and is currently the Resident Agent in Charge for the DEA Mobile Resident Office.
While stationed in Miami, he was the lead DEA case agent on Operation Oxy-Alley which resulted in the first RICO prosecution of pain clinic owners, doctors, employees and a pharmaceutical distributor as well as the first T-III intercept of a pain clinic owner’s mobile device. This investigation resulted in 32 person RICO indictment which included the arrest of 13 doctors, 18 pain clinic employees and one pharmaceutical distributor, the seizure of approximately 11 million dollars in real property, vehicles, cash and bank accounts and the surrender of 8 DEA registrations.
In 2013, SA Burt transferred to the Mobile Alabama Resident Office and became one of case agents on Operation Excessive Pain. The investigative efforts of the DEA, FBI and the United States Attorney’s Office resulted in the first successful RICO prosecution of two physicians, two nurse practitioners and two pharmaceutical sales representatives at Physicians Pain Specialist of Alabama. The investigation lead to the execution of 5 Federal search warrants, the seizure of 14 million dollars in vehicles, cash, bank accounts and real property and the surrender of nine DEA registrations.
In September 2015, John Temple published American Pain: How a young Felon and His Ring of Doctors Unleashed America’s Deadliest Drug Epidemic. This book chronicles Operation Oxy-Alley and details pain clinic owner, Christopher GEORGE, the doctors he hired and the agents and prosecutors who dismantled his criminal organization.
In January 2022, Evan Hughes published The Hard Sell: Crime and Punishment at an Opioid Startup. The book details the rise and fall of a multi-million pharmaceutical company that aggressively marketed a potent opioid used for end of life cancer pain to treat moderate pain symptoms which caused patient addiction and overdose deaths in the Mobile area. Special Agent Burt was interviewed by Mr. Hughes during the making of this book for the work he did in Operation Excessive Pain.