Quote: U.S. drug distributors knowingly flooded a West Virginia city and county with addictive opioid painkillers, lawyers for the governments told a court on Tuesday at the close of a landmark trial, as they seek $2.5 billion to remedy the crisis.

In closing arguments, the lawyers for Huntington and Cabell County told U.S. District Judge David Faber in Charleston that evidence showed the region's crisis was caused by McKesson Corp (MCK.N), AmerisourceBergen Corp (ABC.N) and Cardinal Health Inc (CAH.N).

Paul Farrell, who represents the county, said the sheer volume of drugs the defendants sold, more than 81 million pills in a region with less than 100,000 people, "demonstrates a failure to maintain effective control to prevent diversion."

He said evidence at trial, including internal communications from the companies, showed they had looked the other way from suspicious orders.

"The defendants saw everything, they overlooked a great deal and they corrected very little," he said, paraphrasing a quote from Pope John XXIII used by one AmerisourceBergen investigator in his email signature.

The closing arguments came less than a week after more than dozen state attorneys general proposed a $21 billion nationwide settlement with the distributors.