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...

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. – 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...

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...

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...

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 –...

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...

ALEXANDRIA – On August 4, 2026, United States District Judge Jerry Edwards, Jr., sentenced Dequavious Wagner, 32, of Alexandria, to 270 months in federal prison after he pled guilty to Possession with Intent to Distribute Fentanyl and Possession of a Firearm in Furtherance of Drug Trafficking. He also received five...

NEW ORLEANS – On August 7, 2026, a federal grand jury returned a three-count indictment against DEXTER MONTGOMERY (“MONTGOMERY”), age 51, a resident of New Orleans, charging him with violating the Federal Controlled Substances Act, announced United States Attorney David I. Courcelle. According to court documents, MONTGOMERY was indicted on...