The Drug Enforcement Administration has ordered a Shreveport, Louisiana wholesale pharmaceutical distributor to cease sales of opioids alleging that it failed to report large, suspicious orders to drugstores.

The investigation targeted purchases of oxycodone and hydrocodone, finding that distributor Morris & Dickson and five Louisiana pharmacies bought up to six times the amount of the opioids they would normally order. The investigation began in October 2017, after the agency noticed high-volume opioid sales between the distributor and five of the top ten purchasing pharmacies in Louisiana that were “not indicative of the pharmaceutical market.”

The DEA observed that some of the independent pharmacies were buying more than ten times the amount of narcotics that average Louisiana pharmacies purchased per month.