FedEx may have made one too many deliveries.
The package delivery company has been indicted on drug trafficking charges in San Francisco, according to a report in USA Today.
The company is alleged to have delivered prescription drugs for illegal pharmacies. Sure, any company can use FedEx for deliveries, but prosecutors say FedEx (FDX) has known for a decade that these illegal businesses were using their services to deliver the drugs, going so far as to set up special credit policies to protect FedEx from losing money if the illegal pharmacies were shut down.
“FedEx knew that it was delivering drugs to dealers and addicts,” the Justice Department said in a press release.
FedEx, for its part, denies culpability. Spokespeople say that there is no way a shipping company can check all of the cargo it moves, and that it isn’t the job of FedEx to police its users.
The Justice Department has summoned FedEx to appear in a federal court in San Francisco on July 29.
Couriers for FedEx told federal investigators some pretty scary tales of delivering for the illegal pharmacies, including making deliveries to vacant homes where groups of people would be waiting to collect the parcels.