Sounds like bad reloads,
Best case, pull the ammo down and start from scratch reloading it again, hence full sizing the cases, trim the cases, then re-priming, and so on.
Also to note, figure out the amount of power you have in each case, since this may give you a glimmer of hope of reusing the gun power if you identify the power to begin with. as for the bullets and primer, should be fine to reuse those again.
As for the flakes of brass, sounds like the cases where trimmed on a progressive press during the reloading cycle, and a great deal of brass shaving remained in the cases as they where reloaded, or the cases where trimmed in a separate process, but not chamfered correctly to remove the cutting bur edges.
And in the future, don't buy unknown ammo from an unknown source.
Push comes to shove, Gander mountain has 1K packs of name brand new 223 ammo for under $400 if you don't reload right now.