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Feds raid clinics across metro Atlanta

ATLANTA — Federal agents have raided several clinics across metro Atlanta Wednesday night which they say are linked to suspected pill mills.

Channel 2's Tony Thomas was there when agents hit clinics in Tyrone and southeast Atlanta, along with a pharmacy and two homes.

Federal agents are saying very little, but Thomas watched as they left one of the offices with a truckload of potential evidence.

Ironically, the one person who was talking the most about what happened is the doctor who was meeting patients when the agents stormed in.

"My part here was purely treating the pain," said Dr. William Richardson with the Amarc Medical Clinic.

Richardson walked out the clinic a free man, but not out of the woods as drug enforcement agents poured through his employer's records, looking for evidence the facility was a storefront pill mill.

Into the evening, agents loaded boxes and file cabinets into the back of a box truck.

"You weren't doing anything wrong?" Thomas asked Richardson.

"I wasn't trying to ... Sometimes you can do things and you don't know things that aren't going on. But I certainly wouldn't do anything wrong," Richardson said.

Sources told Thomas federal agents, with help from the state patrol, raided at least five metro Atlanta sites Wednesday.

Those locations included a Lakewood Avenue clinic and a pharmacy a block away on Jonesboro road.

News Chopper 2 hovered above as agents gathered around another related clinic in Tyrone. Sources told Thomas two private homes, including one in Milton, were also searched.

While other clinic employees ran from Channel 2's camera, neighbors told Thomas they were ecstatic, saying they were tired of cars from all over Georgia and other states crowding their streets.

"The whole parking lot would be full of people. Hundreds of people out here getting pills every day," Neighbor Kevin Coles said.

Richardson said he's not sure if the clinic will be open Thursday, but he said he won't be there. In his words he's going to focus on other aspects of medicine now.

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