FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - Three defendants were sentenced to federal prison last week for drug trafficking, announced Drug Enforcement (DEA) Assistant Special Agent in Charge Matthew Barden and Kenneth Elser, United States Attorney for the Western District of Arkansas. Santiago (aka Chuco), age 47, of Commerce, Oklahoma, was sentenced to 151...

GREENVILLE, N.C. - The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina announces that the federal grand jury in Greenville returned a 31 count indictment charging physician Sanjay Kumar, 50, of New Bern, with Conspiracy to Unlawfully Dispense and Distribute Oxycodone, Oxymorphone, Hydromorphone, and Alprazolam; Distribution of...

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. - On Jan. 12, 2017, James Hedelsky, 59, of Bartow County, Ga, was sentenced to serve life in prison by the Honorable Travis R. McDonough, U.S. District Judge. Following a September 2016 jury trial, Hedelsky was convicted of conspiracy to distribute and possess with the intent to distribute...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M - Seven defendants are facing federal methamphetamine trafficking charges in four cases involving seizures last week of more than 52 pounds of methamphetamine. Three of the cases are the result of interdiction investigations at the Greyhound Bus Station and Amtrak Train Station in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The fourth...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M - Shannon Lamont Jackson, 38, of Clovis, New Mexico, was sentenced yesterday to 77 months in federal prison followed by three years of supervised release for his heroin trafficking conviction. Jackson, a career offender whose criminal history includes felony convictions for drug trafficking and violent crimes, was prosecuted...

ALBUQUERQUE - Juan Velazquez, 26, of Las Cruces, N.M., pleaded guilty today in federal court in Las Cruces, N.M., to distributing cocaine and participating in a conspiracy to distribute cocaine in Doña Ana County, N.M. Velazquez was arrested in Sept. 2016, on an indictment alleging cocaine trafficking charges. The 18-count...

ALBUQUERQUE - Amber Kay Otero, 31, of Carlsbad, N.M., pleaded guilty today in federal court in Las Cruces, N.M., to the misdemeanor offense of unlawfully possessing a controlled substance. Otero was arrested on Sept. 23, 2016, following an investigation initiated after the DEA received a report of theft or loss...

ALBUQUERQUE - David Nunez of Santa Fe, N.M., pleaded guilty today in federal court in Albuquerque, N.M., to the misdemeanor offense of dispensing a controlled substance, testosterone, without a prescription. Nunez was a licensed pharmacist and the owner of a pharmacy in Santa Fe at the time he committed the...

ALBUQUERQUE - Ivan Romero, 40, the leader of a heroin trafficking organization based in Taos County, N.M. pleaded guilty earlier this week to federal heroin and money laundering charges filed as the result of a 15-month DEA-led multi-agency investigation. His brother, Ricco Romero, 29, and his wife, Melissa Romero, 37...

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. - Curtis Allen Coleman, 41, of Dayton, Ohio, was sentenced to serve 144 months in prison by the Honorable Travis R. McDonough, United States District Judge. Coleman pleaded guilty in August 2016 to a federal indictment charging him with, among other things, Conspiracy to Distribute Heroin. The indictment...