LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Today three indictments charging 24 defendants in schemes intended to divert pharmaceutical pills to the streets were unsealed, announced Stephen G. Azzam, Special Agent-in-Charge of DEA’s New Orleans Field Division which oversees DEA’s Little Rock District Office, and Patrick C. Harris, Acting United States Attorney for...

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - A federal judge today sentenced a Birmingham, Alabama man to 20 years in prison for distributing fentanyl, a potent synthetic opioid painkiller, that caused the death of a 20-year-old Pelham woman, announced DEA Assistant Special Agent-in-Charge Bret Hamilton and Acting U.S. Attorney Robert O. Posey. A U.S...

NEW ORLEANS - The number of accidental drug-related overdose deaths in the City of New Orleans in 2016 exceeded the number of murders for the first time in the city’s history, according to the Orleans Parish Coroner’s Office. Drug-related deaths in Orleans Parish totaled 211 in 2016, more than double...

MOBILE, Ala. - Elyric Nathaniel Singleton, III was sentenced today by a Senior United States District Judge to 97 months in federal prison for his role in nine pharmacy burglaries, announced Drug Enforcement (DEA) Special Agent in Charge Stephen G. Azzam and Acting United States Attorney Steve Butler of the...

MOBILE, Ala. - Dr. Rassan M. Tarabein, 58, a neurologist residing in Fairhope, Alabama, was arrested by law enforcement officials on federal and state criminal charges relating to health care fraud, announced Drug Enforcement (DEA) Special Agent in Charge Stephen G. Azzam, Acting United States Attorney Steve Butler of the...

MONTGOMERY, Ala. - On Thursday, June 22, 2017, Robert Francis Kelly, age 56, of Pennsylvania, was sentenced to 64 months in prison for possessing approximately 15 kilograms of cocaine with the intent to distribute, announced Drug Enforcement (DEA) Assistant Special Agent in Charge Bret Hamilton and A. Clark Morris, Acting...

NEW ORLEANS - A federal jury has convicted Lazandy Daniels, 40, of the St. Roch neighborhood of New Orleans, for his role in distributing kilograms of cocaine in the New Orleans area, announced DEA Special Agent in Charge Stephen G. Azzam and Acting U.S. Attorney Duane A. Evans. Following a...

MOBILE, Ala. - Today, John Patrick Couch and Xiulu Ruan were sentenced to respectively 240 months and 252 months in federal prison for running a massive pill mill in Mobile, Alabama, announced DEA Special Agent-in-Charge Stephen G. Azzam and Acting United States Attorney Steve Butler of the Southern District of...

NEW ORLEANS, La. - A New Orleans man was sentenced today after previously pleading guilty to participating in a heroin distribution conspiracy in the lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans, announced Drug Enforcement (DEA) Special Agent in Charge Stephen G. Azzam and U.S. Attorney Duane A. Evans. Corey Celestine, age...

BATON ROUGE, La. - Thursday marks the fifth and final sentencing in a series of federal prosecutions aimed at a drug trafficking ring which operated in the Gulf Coast states. Kendall Lewis, age 27, of Lecanto, Florida, appeared before a Chief U.S. District Judge and was sentenced to 90 months...