ASHEVILLE, N.C. – A previously convicted felon was sentenced to prison yesterday for distributing fentanyl, announced Russ Ferguson, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina. Sadiq Mafia Devoe Jones, 24, of Asheville, was sentenced to 135 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release. Jones’s 10-year...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Ahead of National Fentanyl Prevention and Awareness Day on Friday, August 21, the U.S. Attorney’s Office is raising awareness about the dangers of illicit fentanyl and inviting the public to join “A Conversation on Fentanyl: Awareness, Prevention, and Public Health.” U.S. Attorney Russ Ferguson will host the...

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Pearish Pierre Pretty, 43, of Columbia, has been sentenced to more than 20 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and distribution of 5 kilograms or more of cocaine and 50 grams or more of methamphetamine. Evidence obtained in...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – A North Carolina physician has been sentenced to prison for conspiring to allow his Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) registration number to be used for thousands of unlawful buprenorphine prescriptions, announced Russ Ferguson, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina. U.S. District Judge Kenneth D. Bell...

ASHEVILLE, N.C. – Two fentanyl and methamphetamine traffickers were sentenced to prison yesterday, announced Russ Ferguson, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina. Jason Mills, 47, of Hendersonville, N.C., was sentenced to 135 months in prison followed by five years of supervised release. Mills pleaded guilty to distribution...

DEL RIO, Texas – A federal jury in Del Rio convicted a Houston woman on four counts of trafficking methamphetamine into the U.S. from Mexico, announced U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas, Justin R. Simmons. According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, on Dec. 16, 2025...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Omar Antonio Jaramillo-Meza, 24, an illegal alien from Mexico with ties to the Sinaloa Cartel, was sentenced today to 12 years in prison for trafficking more than 133,000 counterfeit pills containing fentanyl, announced Russ Ferguson, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina. Following his prison...

ATLANTA - Gabriel Ojeda Murguia, a violent criminal with a history of hurting other people, was sentenced today to nine years in prison after his conviction for trafficking over 25 kilograms of fentanyl and other drugs in the Atlanta area. “The obscene amount of fentanyl Murguia possessed posed a significant...

ATLANTA - Walter Lee Muhammad, a multi-convicted drug trafficker whose 2020 sentence for fentanyl trafficking was commuted by former President Joe Biden in December 2024, appeared in federal court today on a new fentanyl-trafficking charge filed in the Northern District of Georgia. “Muhammad is a serial drug trafficker who –...

ATLANTA – An indictment unsealed today in the Northern District of Georgia charges Jonathan Eric Gardiner, a convicted felon and Bahamian national, with federal drug importation and conspiracy offenses. U.S. officials arrested Gardiner after rescuing him from the Atlantic Ocean following a plane crash on May 14, 2026. “International cocaine...