In the latest example of the Trump administration's and new U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions' increased focus on the illicit drug trade, the U.S. Department of Justice has announced the formation of a unit designed to combat opioid-related health care fraud.

The Opioid Fraud and Abuse Detection Unit will rely on data to identify and prosecute individuals and companies that contribute to the opioid prescription and heroin addiction epidemic plaguing the country. The unit's targets will include physicians and other providers who operate pill mills and pharmacies that illegally dispense or divert prescriptions for the dangerously addictive pain killers. Most of the program's initial districts are in the Midwest and Southern states.

The data will analyze such patterns as which physicians are prescribing opioids at a rate that exceeds their colleagues, how many of a doctor's patients die within 60 days of an opioid prescription and which pharmacies dispense disproportionately large amounts of the drugs. The program will operate in federal court districts in states and regions significantly affected by the crisis, including Kentucky, West Virginia, Tennessee and southern Ohio. Sessions also said he is assigning 12 prosecutors to focus solely on investigating and prosecuting opioid-related health care fraud in a dozen locations.