Feds: N.Va. oxycodone rings 'learned' from 3 leaders

As Northern Virginia law enforcement officials racked up arrests in three oxycodone-distribution rings this spring, they noticed some connections. There were forged prescriptions with “striking similarities,” court records say. Stolen Drug Enforcement Administration information for the same doctors was used to obtain the drugs. The same people were filling the forged prescriptions.

Now, authorities say they know why those three rings’ methods of illegally obtaining and distributing the painkillers were so similar: They all got their start by working with the same three people.