JASPER, Tenn. — A crew of drug peddlers operating in Marion and Hamilton counties was breaking into pharmacies all across the region and hauling 30,000 pills at a time of oxycodone and hydrocodone from Mexico to Tennessee, authorities said Thursday.

“This is the largest pill case that I’ve ever seen in Marion County,” Marion County Detective Chad Johnson said after news of a major arrest last week was released.

Records show 14 people from Marion, Hamilton and Sequatchie counties have been charged in U.S. District Court in Chattanooga. Three others have been indicted in Marion County on state drug conspiracy charges.

U.S. Attorney Russ Dedrick said in a news release that charges resulted from an investigation by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, Drug Enforcement Administration and the Marion and Hamilton County sheriff’s offices. He said trial is set for Nov. 4 in the federal cases.

Detective Johnson said three people, including a man police call the ringleader, initially were charged in April. That indictment was superseded by the one released last week.

He said the joint investigation came about because Marion County authorities began seeing a lot of illicit pills and Hamilton County lawmen were working on a rash of pharmacy break-ins. They began working with the other agencies and informants to build the case, he said.

Authorities linked 25 pharmacy burglaries in Hamilton, five each in Knoxville and Atlanta and break-ins at the Dunlap Walgreen’s and the Whitwell Pharmacy in Marion County to the gang, Detective Johnson said.

Members also obtained legitimate or forged prescriptions and made trips to the Mexican border for the narcotic pills, he said. Authorities believe the crew may have trafficked 1 million pills or more.