SPOKANE, Wash. – Vanessa R. Waldref, the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Washington, announced today that Esther Rae Tuller, age 41, of Moses Lake, Washington, was sentenced today in federal court in Spokane for tampering with morphine medication while working as a registered nurse. Chief United States...

WAYCROSS, Ga. – The lead defendant in a Waycross-area fentanyl and heroin trafficking operation has now pled guilty, joining the other five defendants who admitted their roles in the conspiracy. Eric Lashawn Hayes, a/k/a “Pee Wee,” 28, of Blackshear, Ga., awaits sentencing after pleading guilty to Possession of a Firearm...

POCATELLO, Idaho – Melvin Misael Alcaraz-Valdez, of Declo, Idaho, was sentenced to federal prison for possession with the intent to distribute methamphetamine, announced U.S. Attorney Josh Hurwit, today. Chief U.S. District Judge David C. Nye sentenced Alcaraz-Valdez to 135 months. 11 years, 3 months. Alcaraz-Valdez, upon completion of his time...

SEATTLE – A top leader of a violent international drug trafficking organization that distributed heroin, fentanyl, and methamphetamine in the Puget Sound region, pleaded guilty this week in U.S. District Court in Seattle. Luis Arturo Magana-Ramirez, 34, of Fife, Washington, faces a mandatory minimum ten years in prison and up...

COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA — Ralph Allison Pitt, Jr., 46, of Columbia, was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to possessing with intent to distribute methamphetamine and possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. Evidence presented to the Court showed that, on December 6...

MEDFORD, Ore.—A Josephine County, Oregon man who distributed marijuana throughout the U.S. using his private airplane, and who hired a hitman to kill a drug trafficking associate, was sentenced to federal prison today. John Tobe Larson, 71, was sentenced to 35 months in federal prison and five years of supervised...

PORTLAND, Ore.—A former Clackamas, Oregon dentist pleaded guilty today to illegally distributing controlled substances, including prescription drugs, and anabolic steroids. Salwan Wesam Adjaj, 43, a resident of West Linn, Oregon, waived indictment and pleaded guilty to a one-count information charging him with distributing and possessing with intent to distribute controlled...

BRUNSWICK, GA – A newly unsealed federal indictment charges 14 defendants in a South Georgia drug trafficking conspiracy alleged to have been directed from inside a Georgia state prison. The indictment in Operation Pope’s G.O.A.L., an Organized Crime Drug Trafficking Task Force investigation, alleges the drug trafficking conspiracy distributed methamphetamine...

RALEIGH, N.C. – A Robeson County man was sentenced today to 120 months in prison for conspiracy to distribute and possessing with the intent to distribute thousands of illegal prescription pills including oxycodone, oxymorphone, hydrocodone, and methadone. On February 16, 2021, Jeffrey Randal Brooks, Jr., pleaded guilty to the charges...

BOISE, Idaho – On Friday, July 1, 2022, Dakota James Hoffman, 29, of Bellevue, Idaho, was sentenced to 48 months in federal prison for distribution of fentanyl, U.S. Attorney Josh Hurwit announced. According to court records, Hoffman distributed oxycodone pills to a man with the initials A.K. who overdosed on...