21 luxury cars from pill-mill operation to be auctioned off in Austin

More than 20 luxury cars were under one tent near the Austin Airport. They belonged to some doctors out of Alabama who are now in prison for writing fraudulent prescriptions. The doctors bought the high-end cars with money from an illegal pill-mill operation. The FBI and DEA busted them and they are serving time for the crime. Because of a U.S. Marshals forfeiture program, the doctors won’t have those nice cars when they get out of prison they will be sold and the money will go to the victims of the case.

Jennifer Crane is the Assistant Chief for U.S. Marshals Service Asset Forfeiture Division, “There's Lamborghinis and Ferraris. There's a pretty rare Spyker, very few of those are made. The most expensive one we have right now is a Saleen S7 maybe about $275,000 to start,” She said.       

The 21 cars are up for bid for anyone online, but for those in Austin they could see them in person at the Airport Hilton.

The doctors were convicted in the federal criminal case in March by a jury Will McAdam, is a Deputy with the United States Marshals, “They were prescribing narcotics that necessarily didn’t' need to be prescribed and as a result it became quite a lucrative operation for them,” he said. The U.S. Marshals were brought in to investigate and found the cars were purchased with profits from the illegal operation. “Marshal Service actually went through procedure planning with those investigating agency to help identify these assets and subsequently take custody of them,” Deputy McAdam said.

They were hoping to get at least 2-million dollars for the cars and also had some fine jewelry lots they were auctioning off unrelated to the case. “This is a great law enforcement tool, it's a great story because we help the victims, you can actually see how law enforcement is helping the victims of the crimes,” Crane said.

Crane said they chose Austin because of the Formula One race happening. They thought no better weekend to showcase these type of cars to the crowds coming through Austin, “Come see the race, come buy car, buy a couple Rolex’s, go home and you're a happy person,” she said.

For more information, you can go to www.TXAuction.com.