SEATTLE - Fifteen people were arrested today throughout the Puget Sound region and in California following an 18-month investigation of a drug trafficking organization tied to the CJNG cartel in Mexico. Defendants arrested today made their initial appearance in U.S. District Court in Seattle. The South Sound Streets are safer...

SPOKANE, Wash. - Randall Curtis Gross, 27, of Grand Coulee, Washington, was sentenced on June 16, 2020, after having pleaded guilty on February 11, 2020, to conspiracy to distribute 500 grams or more of methamphetamine as well as heroin. Senior District Court Judge Wm. Fremming Nielsen sentenced Gross to a...

PORTLAND, Ore.—The leader of a Salem-area drug distribution network was sentenced on March 11, 2020, to federal prison for his role in a conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and cocaine in and around Salem, Oregon. Isaias Alvarado, 38, a Mexican citizen residing in Salem, was sentenced to 120 months in federal...

SEATTLE - Drug Enforcement Administration Acting Administrator Uttam Dhillon today announced that the DEA will direct enforcement resources to methamphetamine “transportation hubs” — areas where methamphetamine is often trafficked in bulk and then distributed across the country. While continuing to focus on stopping drugs being smuggled across the border, DEA’s...

PORTLAND, Ore . – Darlene Michelle Sturdevant, 61, of Vancouver, Wash., was sentenced today to 14 years in federal prison and five years’ supervised release for conspiring to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine and heroin throughout the Portland metropolitan area, possessing with intent to distribute heroin, and committing an...

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Gian Carlo Clemente Pangilinan, 23, of Anchorage, was found guilty on Jan. 10, 2019, after a three-day federal jury trial. The jury found Pangilinan guilty of one count of possession of more than 50 grams of methamphetamine with the intent to distribute. According to evidence presented at...

MEDFORD, Ore.—Five people were arrested on Oct. 9th, 2019, for their roles in a conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and heroin manufactured in Mexico in and around Klamath Falls, Oregon. Rogelio Gomez-Arias, 23, Irving Beas Ceballos, 34, Alexis Chavez-Franco, 22, and Domingo Matias-Hernandez, 36, are each charged by indictment with conspiring...

PORTLAND, Ore. - Yesterday, a third Portland-area man was sentenced to federal prison for his role in a conspiracy to traffic large quantities of methamphetamine into the Portland Metropolitan Area. Ulises Mayares Jr., 26, of Portland, was sentenced on July 29, 2019, to 48 months in prison and five years’...

SPOKANE, Wash. – Early this morning, the United States Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the U.S. Border Patrol led a large-scale enforcement action targeting a methamphetamine and heroin drug trafficking organization with ties to a Washington State-based street gang identified as the Eastside...

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Two California men have been sentenced for their roles in a drug trafficking conspiracy to transport methamphetamine and heroin from the Lower 48 to Ketchikan for distribution. Arthur Castillo, 32, of Fresno, California, and Alfonso Francisco Sandoval, 32, of Clovis, California, were both sentenced in Juneau on...