Pittsburgh (AP) -- The pain clinic tucked into the corner of alow-slung suburban strip mall was an open secret.

Patients would travel hundreds of miles to see Dr. AndrzejZielke, eager for what authorities described as a steady flow ofprescriptions for the kinds of powerful painkillers that ushered the nation into itsworst drug crisis in history.

At least one of Zielke's patients died of an overdose, andprosecutors say others became so dependent on oxycodone and otheropioids they would crowd his office, sometimes sleeping in thewaiting room. Some peddled their pills near tumble-down storefrontsand on blighted street corners in addiction-plagued parts ofAllegheny County, where deaths by drug overdose reached recordlevels last year.

But Robert Cessar, a longtime federal prosecutor, was unaware ofZielke until Justice Department officials handed him abinder of data that, he said, confirmed what pill-seekers from asfar away as Ohio and Virginia already knew. The doctor who offeredozone therapy and herbal pain remedies was also prescribing highlyaddictive narcotics to patients who didn't need them, according toan indictment charging him with conspiracy and unlawfullydistributing controlled substances.

Zielke denied he was overprescribing, telling AP he practicedalternative medicine and many of his patients stopped seeing himwhen he cut down on pain pills.

His indictment in October was the first by a nationwide group offederal law enforcement officials that, armed with new access to abroader array of prescription drug databases, Medicaid and Medicarefigures, coroners' records and other numbers compiled by theJustice Department, aims to stop fraudulent doctors faster thanbefore.

The department is providing a trove of data to the Opioid Fraudand Abuse Detection Unit, which draws together authorities in 12regions across the country, that shows which doctors areprescribing the most, how far patients will travel to see them andwhether any have died within 60 days of receiving one of theirprescriptions, among other information.

Authorities have been going after so-called "pill mills" foryears, but the new approach brings additional federal resources tobear against the escalating epidemic. Where prosecutors would spendmonths or longer building a case by relying on erratic informantsand only limited data, the number-crunching by analysts inWashington provides information they say lets them quickly zero inon a region's top opioid prescribers.

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"This data shines a light we've never had before," Cessar said."We don't need to have confidential informants on the street tostart a case. Now, we have someone behind a computer screen who ishelping us. That has to put (doctors) on notice that we have newtools."

And Rod Rosenstein, deputy attorney general, told AP the JusticeDepartment will consider going after any law-breaker, even apharmaceutical company, as it seeks to bring more cases and reducethe number of unwarranted prescriptions.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions has been in lock-step withPresident Donald Trump about the need to combat the drug abuseproblem that claimed more than 64,000 lives in 2016, a prioritythat resonates with Trump's working-class supporters who have seenthe ravages of drug abuse first-hand. The president called it apublic health emergency, a declaration that allows the governmentto redirect resources in various ways to fight opioid abuse.

But he directed no new federal money to deal with a scourge thatkills nearly 100 people a day, and critics say his efforts fallshort of what is needed. The Republican-controlled Congress doesn'tseem eager to put extra money toward the problem.

While the effectiveness of the Trump administration's broaderstrategy remains to be seen, the Justice Department's data-driveneffort is one small area where federal prosecutors say they canhave an impact.

The data analysis provides clues about who may be breaking thelaw that are then corroborated with old-fashioned detective work —tips from informants or undercover office visits, said Shawn A.Brokos, a supervisory special agent in the FBI's Pittsburghdivision. Investigators can also get a sense for where displacedpatients will turn next.

Authorities acknowledge there are legitimate reasons for somedoctors to prescribe large quantities of opioids, and highprescribing alone doesn't necessarily trigger extra scrutiny. Whatraises red flags for investigators are the dentists, psychiatristsand gynecologists who are prescribing at surprisingly highrates.

The effort operates on the long-held perception that drugaddiction often starts with prescriptions from doctors and leads toabuse of more dangerous black market drugs like fentanyl, which,for the first time last year, contributed to more overdose deathsthan any other legal or illegal drug, surpassing pain pills andheroin.

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But that focus can cause law-abiding physicians to abandondisabled patients who rely on prescriptions, for fear of being shutdown, said University of Alabama addiction researcher StefanKertesz. Those patients will turn to harder street drugs or evenkill themselves, he said.

"The professional risk for physicians is so high that thenatural tendency is to get out of the business of prescriptionopioids at all," he said.

Another addiction expert, Dr. Andrew Kolodny, founder ofPhysicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing, said prosecutors'emphasis on "drug-dealing doctors" is appropriate but inadequate onits own.

"It's just not really going to have that much of an impact on anepidemic," he said. The bigger change will come from a strongerpush for prevention and treatment, he said. And, he added, "Theyshould go after the bigger fish.... the legal narcoticsdistributors and wholesalers who have literally been getting awaywith mass manslaughter."

Investigators said Zielke charged $250 a visit and made patientspay in cash. But Zielke said prosecutors unfairly targeted him.Instead of more prosecutions, he said, the government "shouldpromote more alternative therapies," he said. "And they should findout why so many people have pain."

A second indictment by the anti-fraud unit involved acardiologist in Elko, Nevada, accused of routinely providingpatients fentanyl and other painkillers they did not need. Justiceofficials hope to expand the data-driven work nationwide.

Will it work? As Soo Song, who watched addiction warpcommunities while serving as acting U.S. attorney in westernPennyslvania, put it: "The best measure of success will be if fewerpeople die."

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