CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Salvador Barrera, Jr., 27, and Ricardo Jonathan Gomez, 27, both of Charlotte, appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge David C. Keesler today and pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine, announced Dena J. King, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – U.S. District Judge Robert J. Conrad Jr. sentenced Juan Octavio Iribe Laveaga, 35, of Norwalk, California, to 292 months in prison followed by five years of supervised release for trafficking large quantities of methamphetamine and fentanyl, announced Dena J. King, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Jonathan Corey Daniel, 33, of Monroe, Georgia, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Kenneth D. Bell to 210 months in prison and five years of supervised release for trafficking methamphetamine, announced Dena J. King, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina. In July 2021...

ASHEVILLE, N.C. – A federal jury in Asheville has convicted Jorge Luis Perez, 36, of Wimauma, Florida, of drug trafficking and firearms offenses, announced Dena J. King, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina. U.S. District Judge Martin Reidinger presided over the three-day trial which ended today. According...

AUGUSTA, GA: The final defendant of four conspirators in an industrial-level pill-production operation is joining his mother and two other defendants in federal prison after all admitted participating in an operation that used pill presses to package and distribute methamphetamine. Albert Bynoe, a/k/a “Chino,” a/k/a “Bossman Chino,” 35, of Tucker...

AUGUSTA, GA: Ten people have been indicted in an Augusta-area drug trafficking conspiracy linked to another large-scale drug trafficking prosecution. As described in the newly unsealed indictment in USA v. Fields et. al, the investigation parallels the indictments in USA v. Wheatley et. al, together dubbed Operation Wheat Fields, and...

AUGUSTA, GA: A Columbia County man has been sentenced to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to methamphetamine distribution. Bobby Lewis Sturkey, 51, of Harlem, Ga., was sentenced to 120 months in prison after previously pleading guilty to Possession with Intent to Distribute Methamphetamine, said David H. Estes, U.S...

STATESBORO, GA: A newly unsealed federal indictment charges nearly three dozen defendants for their involvement in a drug trafficking conspiracy centered in south Georgia and reaching into the Caribbean. The primary conspiracy charge in USA v. Morales-Jimenez et. al, dubbed Operation Carpet Ride, carries a statutory minimum penalty of 10...

SAVANNAH, GA - A Coffee County, Ga., physician has been sentenced to five years in federal prison after he admitted to participating in a drug trafficking conspiracy that distributed massive amounts of addictive-controlled substances from pain management and addiction clinics. Dr. Wallace Steven Anderson, 68, of Douglas, Ga., was sentenced...

CHICAGO – In support of those who have lost loved ones to fentanyl poisoning, the Drug Enforcement Administration Chicago Division hosted its first-ever Family Summit on the Opioid Overdose Epidemic on November 17 in Rosemont, Illinois. This was the first undertaking of its kind for the DEA Chicago Division and...