ASHEVILLE, N.C. –U.S. District Judge Martin Reidinger has sentenced Frank Michael Lucas, 33, of Sylva, N.C. to 160 months in prison on drug trafficking charges, announced U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina Andrew Murray. Judge Reidinger also ordered Lucas to serve five years under court supervision and...

ATLANTA – Allen Ifechukwu Athan Onyema, the Chairman, CEO, and founder of Air Peace, a Nigerian airline, has been charged with bank fraud and money laundering for moving more than $20 million from Nigeria through United States bank accounts in a scheme involving false documents based on the purchase of...

CINCINNATI – A federal grand jury has charged 36 individuals with crimes related to narcotics and money laundering conspiracies in an indictment that was unsealed today. Those charged include 22 local individuals. Law enforcement agents arrested all 36 defendants late last week and over the weekend. According to the indictment...

ATLANTA – Ramone Shirley has been sentenced for possession with the intent to distribute heroin. Shirley is a prior convicted felon who had nearly 200 grams of heroin and two firearms in his possession when officers arrested him in 2018. “The successful results of this investigation should let career criminals...

CHARLESTON, S.C. – United States Attorney Sherri Lydon announced today that James C. Edgerton, IV, 35, was sentenced in federal court in Columbia after pleading guilty to conspiring to possess with intent to distribute and to distribute heroin and methamphetamine. Senior United States District Judge Joseph F. Anderson, Jr., of...

CHARLESTON, S.C. – United States Attorney Sherri Lydon announced today that Brian Dale Lee, 40, was sentenced in federal court in Charleston after pleading guilty to conspiring to possess with intent to distribute and to distribute heroin and methamphetamine. United States District Judge Richard M. Gergel, of Charleston, sentenced Lee...

ATLANTA – Roberto Arroyo-Garcia has pleaded guilty to methamphetamine trafficking on premises where a minor child resides and within 1,000 feet of a school. Arroyo-Garcia and two co-defendants illegally entered the United States from Mexico and then utilized a family home across the street from an elementary school to operate...

STATESVILLE, N.C. – U.S. Attorney Andrew Murray announced today that Tevin Jerome Gaither, 29, of Hickory, N.C., was sentenced to 123 months in prison followed by five years of supervised release on drug trafficking and firearms offenses, announced U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina Andrew Murray. U.S...

WASHINGTON – The Drug Enforcement Administration is alerting the public of dangerous counterfeit pills killing Americans. Mexican drug cartels are manufacturing mass quantities of counterfeit prescription pills containing fentanyl, a dangerous synthetic opioid that is lethal in minute doses, for distribution throughout North America. Based on a sampling of tablets...

WASHINGTON – Americans nationwide have once again shown their strong support for DEA’s National Prescription Drug Take Back Day by dropping off nearly 883,000 pounds of medications during the October 2019 Take Back event. DEA, along with its law enforcement partners, has now collected nearly 12.7 million pounds of expired...