Names of the individuals rounded up by federal and state agencies Wednesday in connection to what is being referred to as “the pill pipeline” from Florida to Kentucky were not released Thursday, though the arrests were continuing even as officials held a press conference in Lexington to speak about the effort.

As of Thursday, more than 300 individuals had been arrested in the sweep, the state’s largest to date, while some 500 in total had been charged with crimes, said Bob McBride, criminal chief with the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

“We’re currently conducting the largest drug sweep in the state’s history,” McBride said. “This effort represents unprecedented coordination between agencies.”

McBride said the general charges were conspiracy to distribute and distribution of mostly oxycodone and methadone as well as money laundering.

Of those in custody Thursday, McBride said James Marsillett Jr., whose father James Marsillett Sr. and also his son, James Marsillett III, were also indicted on trafficking charges, faced the most serious charges.

That case, which saw 11 others indicted, charges that Marsillett headed the effort to bring oxycodone and methadone to Floyd, Pike and Johnson counties, among others, from Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio, starting as far back as the spring of 2005.

The indictment against Marsillett Jr. says he organized the continuing criminal enterprise involving more than a dozen people who traveled to and from Florida to obtain and then distribute prescription drugs, especially in Pike, Floyd and Johnson counties. If convicted, Marsillett Jr. could face between 20 years to life in prison.

Wednesday was the culmination of a three-year long investigation, said Timothy Cox, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI in Kentucky.

“We have arrested over 300 individuals,” said Cox, “This is testament to the quality of people who have working out there that we have had no problems.”

Cox said the focal investigation into the pill pipeline was a textbook case.

“This case and this investigation is a perfect example of a criminal enterprise that doesn’t recognize any boundaries.”

Part of the funding that enabled the investigation to continue over the course of the last three years came from the National Drug Control Policy, which sent $165,000 into the hands of investigators to cover, in most part, the costs of traveling from state to state during the effort.

According to Kentucky State Police Commissioner Rodney Brewer, this roundup hasy made an impact.

“We heard numerous complaints from citizens who wanted us to do something to stop the drug problem and obviously those complaints did not fall on deaf ears,” Brewer said Thursday. “This has already decreased the flow into and out of the state.”

Last year 877 accidental deaths in Kentucky were connected to prescription drug abuse, while northeastern Kentucky reflected the highest rate in the nation of non-medicinal use of pain medication by people 12 years old or older.

Reports also show that prescription drug abuse has increased in 118 and Kentucky’s 120 counties over the past year while other reports say that 1-in-5 teens have used painkillers for recreational use in the past 30 days, said Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway.

“We all know the toll that prescription pill abuse has taken on Kentucky ... I think we’re striking a major blow here today,” Conway said. “We look forward to continuing this fight.”