Fourteen individuals linked to a Massachusetts pharmacy accused of causing a deadly 2012 meningitis outbreak were arrested Wednesday.

According to official documents, federal prosecutors' charges in the case include "racketeering with 25 predicate acts of second degree murder in 7 states," CBS Boston reported.

Pharmacy co-founders Barry Cadden and Gregory Conigliaro, along with 12 of their former employees, are due in U.S. District Court on Wednesday, according to the Boston Herald. Federal agents arrested Cadden, Conigliaro and 10 others in predawn raids and said that the two remaining defendants would self-report to the proceedings.

One of the accused, former head pharmacist Glenn Adam Chin, was already taken into custody in September, the United States attorney's office told Rhe New York Times. He faces charges of mail fraud, and his arrest took place as he was trying to board a flight to Hong Kong at Boston's Logan International Airport.

Investigators say the Framingham pharmacy known as NECC produced steroid shots contaminated with black mold that in the fall of 2012 were distributed to medical facilities in at least 23 states, according to CBS Boston. The shots exposed thousands of patients to fungal meningitis, an inflammation of the protective membranes covering the brain and spinal cord.

Seven hundred and fifty individuals contracted the disease in states as far south as Texas and as far west as Idaho; 64 of them died. NECC subsequently ceased operations and gave up its pharmacy license. The company filed for bankruptcy after it was subjected to hundreds of lawsuits filed by victims and their families.

Cadden, who co-founded the company in 1998, was called before Congress in November 2012 to testify about the incident. The University of Rhode Island graduate refused to explain himself, however, citing his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

The case brought about new legislation regulating compounding pharmacies such as NECC, The New York Times explained. The businesses specialize in producing individualized formulations of drugs for patients with particular needs. Over time, the newspaper said, the companies had grown in size and begun to distribute drugs all over the country "virtually unregulated by the federal government."

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