Prison for the competition, settlements for the connected

Federal prosecutors just finished celebrating what they call the largest drug conspiracy ever prosecuted in Maine. Daquan Corbett, 31, got 23 years for running a methamphetamine and fentanyl pipeline from Brockton, Massachusetts to rural Aroostook County. Twenty-two people total were convicted, with sentences ranging from time served to over two decades in federal prison.

Judge Stacey D. Neumann declared the defendants engaged in "destructive conduct that harms everyone who lives in the communities where they were dealing." That quote deserves examination, because it raises a question nobody in the courtroom bothered to ask: how many of those drug purchases happened at gunpoint?

The answer is zero.

These transactions were between consenting adults. Adults bought substances from other adults. The federal government's own sentencing data reveals that in fiscal year 2023, only 758 of 19,841 federal drug cases involved an identifiable person as a victim. That's 3.8 percent. Federal presentence reports for drug offenses routinely have blank victim impact sections because there's no complaining witness just the state inserting itself into private commerce.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Joel Casey described the drug quantities as "staggering" enough methamphetamine and fentanyl to cause 3.7 million overdoses. This theatrical calculation assumes every milligram reaches retail distribution, gets consumed at lethal doses, and produces a fatal outcome. It's the same inflated street value math that law enforcement has perfected over decades. A 2012 investigation found that cops routinely multiply actual drug value by 2x to 7x, turning $2 million seizures into $9 million headlines. One detective admitted openly: "If you're dealing with kilos, you could break it down to grams to really inflate it and make it look good."

The prosecution claims Corbett delivered $1 million of methamphetamine and $1.5 million of fentanyl to a single co-conspirator over two years. According to who? The same agencies that invented the Philadelphia bust claiming LSD cost $100 per hit when the actual price was $5-$10. The same methodology that transformed a $1.6 million wholesale seizure into an $11.7 million press release.

Now compare Corbett's 23 years to the treatment of the Sackler family.

Purdue Pharma generated over $35 billion selling OxyContin, a drug their own internal documents showed they knew was highly addictive and being diverted for abuse. Between 2008 and 2018 as the opioid epidemic they created was killing hundreds of thousands of Americans the Sacklers withdrew more than $10 billion from Purdue into offshore accounts and family trusts unreachable by American courts.

Since 1999, over 800,000 Americans have died from opioid overdoses. The Sacklers' marketing of OxyContin contributed significantly to that crisis. Purdue Pharma pleaded guilty to federal felonies conspiracy to defraud the United States and violating the Federal Anti-Kickback Statute. The company racked up four felony convictions since 2007. Number of Sackler family members who have spent a single day in prison: zero. They settled for $7.4 billion in January 2025, keeping the rest of their $10.8 billion fortune and facing no criminal prosecution whatsoever.

A street dealer from Brockton gets 23 years for selling to willing buyers.

A pharmaceutical dynasty that created the worst drug epidemic in American history writes a check and walks away.

The government calls one operation "destructive" while the other got FDA approval and aggressive patent protection.

This selective enforcement isn't new. The 1989 Kerry Committee report documented that CIA-backed Contras in Nicaragua were receiving support from drug traffickers while multiple U.S. government agencies had knowledge. The State Department selected four companies owned by known narcotics traffickers to supply "humanitarian assistance." CIA Inspector General Frederick Hitz later confirmed the agency didn't "cut off relationships with individuals supporting the Contra program who were alleged to have engaged in drug trafficking activity." Drug trafficking penalties vary dramatically based on who's doing the trafficking and why.

Meanwhile, the legal drug trade continues killing Americans at industrial scale with complete impunity. According to GAO estimates, approximately one million people die annually from diet-related chronic diseases in the United States. Ultra-processed food now comprises 55% of the American diet, and research links high consumption to a 50% increased risk of cardiovascular death. Heart disease alone killed 695,000 Americans in 2021. Nobody arrests the Burger King or charges Ronald McDonald as co-conspirators in a cardiovascular disease trafficking ring, despite the body count dwarfing every illegal drug combined.

The Maine case facts themselves are straightforward: a 22-person network ran drugs north from Massachusetts and sent cash and firearms south from 2018 to 2021. Multiple agencies coordinated the investigation DEA, ATF, Maine Drug Enforcement Agency, state police, and six local departments. Sentences varied: Daviston Jackson got 20 years, Danielle McBreairty got 20 years, several defendants received time served.

The judge called the defendants' conduct "destructive." Every adult who bought fentanyl or meth from this operation made a choice. Some probably died from that choice. But the pharmaceutical executives who manipulated FDA approvals, bribed doctors, and lied about addiction risks they created the demand these street dealers served. The government that approved OxyContin, protected its patents, and took decades to respond now hands out 23-year sentences to the people filling the market its own regulatory failures enabled.

Daquan Corbett organized toy drives in Brockton and fed homeless residents. He'll be around 60 when he gets out. The Sacklers have their names on museum wings across the country, though some institutions have finally started removing the signage. That's the American drug war: prison for the competition, settlements for the connected.