Shipping giant FedEx is facing trial in a US court on drug trafficking charges.
FedEx delivered packages containing illegal prescription drugs for internet pharmacies even after it noticed that authorities were cracking down on the businesses and was told that one had shipped drugs to a woman who committed suicide, prosecutors say.
FedEx knew that drugs in millions of packages it delivered over a decade were illegally prescribed but shipped them anyway because it did not want to lose millions of dollars in revenue to rival UPS, Assistant US Attorney John Hemann said during his opening statement on Monday.
"They faced a choice, and the choice is to stop or go, and time and time again, they went," Hemann said at the trial in San Francisco.
The government plans to rely on FedEx's emails to make its case.
FedEx has denied the charges and says it only shipped what it believed were legal drugs from pharmacies licensed by states and registered with the US Drug Enforcement Administration.
In her opening statement, FedEx lawyer Cristina Arguedas said the company helped investigators crack down on the two pharmacies that prosecutors say were involved in the scheme and that it was never told by the DEA not to ship for a customer.
"If FedEx was picking up from a pharmacy that was shut down by the DEA and reopened, it had a registration issued by the DEA," she said.
Arguedas contended that a DEA agent who emailed FedEx in 2006 about the suicide did not want the company to do anything about the pharmacy that shipped the drugs, citing an ongoing investigation of the business.
The exchange was "emblematic" of the partnership between the DEA and FedEx, Arguedas said.
The trial - nearly two years in the making - is unusual because of the government's decision to bring drug charges against a package delivery company and for the lack of a settlement.
UPS paid $US40 million in 2013 to resolve similar allegations that arose from a years-long government crackdown on internet pharmacies that ship drugs to customers without valid prescriptions.
The stakes are high for FedEx. No FedEx officials are facing prison time, but the charges carry a potential fine of $US1.6 billion ($A2.17 billion).
In the early 2000s, prosecutors say, FedEx began conspiring with two internet pharmacy organisations to ship powerful sleep aids, sedatives, painkillers and other drugs to customers who had not been physically examined by a doctor.
The crux of the government's case is that FedEx knew the drugs were illegal and headed for dealers and addicts but delivered them anyway.
Company drivers expressed safety concerns that FedEx trucks were being stopped on the road by online pharmacy customers demanding packages of pills, according to the US attorney's office.
"It was like 'The Walking Dead' your honour in some places," Hemann said, describing the customers.
FedEx is charged with conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, conspiracy to launder money and other counts.
The trial could last into August before a ruling by Senior US District Court Judge Charles Breyer, who will decide the case.
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