SAN DIEGO – On Saturday, October 26, DEA and its national, tribal and community partners will hold the 18th National Prescription Drug Take Back Day across the country. The service is free and anonymous. For the first time, DEA will accept vaping devices and cartridges at all National Prescription Drug...

SAN DIEGO – Pacific Beach resident Maya Kol pleaded guilty in federal court today, admitting that he sold fentanyl powder that caused the death of one man and sent another to the hospital over Labor Day weekend in September 2018. A third man - Kol’s source of the fentanyl -...

SAN DIEGO – Drug dealer Trevon Antone Lucas was sentenced in federal court today to 15 years in prison for selling the counterfeit oxycodone pills laced with fentanyl that caused the overdose death of a La Jolla resident in June of 2018. Lucas, a resident of Highland, Calif., pleaded guilty...

SAN DIEGO – Dr. Roger A. Kasendorf, an osteopathic physician practicing in La Jolla, agreed to pay $125,000 to resolve allegations that he illegally prescribed opioids to his patients. The highly addictive and frequently abused opioids he prescribed included fentanyl, hydromorphone, oxymorphone, and oxycodone. In response to the Justice Department’s...

SAVANNAH, Ga: Pharmacists, a pharmacy, and several individuals have been named as defendants in various criminal and civil actions filed in federal court in the Southern District of Georgia as part of continuing efforts by the U.S. Attorney’s Office to combat the opioid epidemic. The actions in Georgia and Florida...

AUGUSTA, Ga. – Eight people have been charged in a 13-count federal indictment in a drug trafficking conspiracy that brought large amounts of narcotics from Atlanta for distribution in the Augusta area. The indictments stem from a two-year joint investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration and Richmond County Sheriff’s Office...

ASHEVILLE, N.C. – Today, U.S. District Judge Martin Reidinger sentenced Oscar Orlando Navarro-Melendez, 31, a Honduran national residing in Asheville, N.C. to 135 months in prison and five years of supervised release, for possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine, announced Andrew Murray, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North...

SAN DIEGO – Eight indictments were unsealed today in San Diego federal court charging 85 members of drug distribution networks linked to the Sinaloa Cartel, with federal drug trafficking, money laundering and firearms offenses. During the coordinated takedown that began early this morning, investigators executed over a dozen search warrants...

SAN DIEGO – Uriah Odish pleaded guilty in federal court today, admitting that he supplied fentanyl that led to the fatal overdose of 25-year-old Tiffany Hansen, of La Mesa, on Jan. 23, 2018. According to his plea agreement, Odish sold more than 500 grams of what he knew to be...

SAN DIEGO – Christopher James Stracuzzi entered a guilty plea in federal court today, admitting that he distributed fentanyl that resulted in the death of a San Diego man. Stracuzzi is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 2, 2019, at 9 a.m. before U.S. District Judge Thomas J. Whelan. According...