SAVANNAH, Ga. - A multi-agency operation in the Southern District of Georgia is receiving national recognition for dismantling a major drug trafficking organization whose methods included delivering contraband to prisons with drones and using funding from a lottery winner. The Southern District’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force received the...

ASHEVILLE, N.C. – Today, U.S. District Judge Martin Reidinger sentenced Linda Liceth Prada-Ardilla, 29, a Colombian 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 United States Drug Enforcement Administration Atlanta Field Division Special Agent...

SAVANNAH, Ga. – Sixteen of the defendants indicted on drug trafficking and firearms charges as part of Operation Vanilla Gorilla have pled guilty in federal court, including the lead defendant in the gang. Operation Vanilla Gorilla targeted the notorious Ghost Face Gangsters, a violent criminal street gang largely operated from...

STATESBORO, Ga. - A Mexican national and 17 other Statesboro-area residents indicted in a sweeping two-year, multi-agency investigation have pled guilty to a multitude of charges, and now face sentences of up to life in prison. The joint federal, state and local investigation began in 2015 after citizens complained about...

SAVANNAH, Ga. - Sixteen of the defendants indicted on drug trafficking and firearms charges as part of Operation Vanilla Gorilla have pled guilty in federal court, including the lead defendant in the gang. Operation Vanilla Gorilla targeted the notorious Ghost Face Gangsters, a violent criminal street gang largely operated from...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – U.S. Attorney Andrew Murray announced today that Marcus Lenard Armstrong, 35, of McDonough, Ga., was sentenced to 120 months in prison and three years of supervised release on drug trafficking conspiracy charges, for buying the deadly synthetic opioid U-47700 on the dark web using cryptocurrency. “Whether you’re...

SAVANNAH, Ga. - More than 40 associates of the notorious Ghost Face Gangsters, a violent, white supremacist criminal street gang operated largely from inside prisons, have been indicted on federal charges related to drug trafficking and firearms possession throughout eastern Georgia and beyond. A 93-page, 83-count federal grand jury indictment...

RALEIGH, N.C. – The Special Agent in Charge for the United States Drug Enforcement Administration's Atlanta Field Division, Robert Murphy, announced that United States District Judge James C. Dever III sentenced Joaquin R. Ortega, 36, of Graham, N.C., to 252 months imprisonment followed by 60 months of supervised release. Ortega...

RALEIGH, N.C. – The United States Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina, Robert J. Higdon, Jr., announced that today in federal court, United States District Judge James C. Dever, III sentenced Samuel Monserrate-Garcia, 55, of Midway Park, North Carolina and Victor Rodriguez , 41, of Jacksonville, North Carolina...

BRUNSWICK, GA: The leader of a multi-state methamphetamine trafficking ring will spend more than 23 years in prison after sentencing this week in federal court. Susan “Ma” Anderson, 67, of Hortense, Ga., was sentenced Oct. 30 by United States District Court Judge Lisa Godbey Wood to 280 months in prison...