DETROIT – In an effort to mitigate vulnerabilities within the commerce stream that threaten the nation’s consumers and to protect national security, Homeland Security officials recently launched its Global Trade Task Force, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations-led multi-agency effort that leverages robust import and export controls...

DALLAS – A U.S. District Judge has granted federal prosecutors’ motion to shut down a drug-infested hotel located just 1000 feet from a Dallas elementary school, DEA Dallas Division Special Agent in Charge Clyde E. Shelley, Jr., and U.S. Attorney Erin Nealy Cox announced today. On Thursday, a task force...

CINCINNATI – A defendant was sentenced today in the first federally indicted carfentanil prosecution in the country. Phillip Watkins, 34, of Cincinnati, was sentenced in U.S. District Court today to 300 months in prison for conspiring to distribute heroin laced with carfentanil and attempting to murder a witness he believed...

DAYTON, Ohio – The lead defendant in a Southwestern Ohio methamphetamine conspiracy pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court last Friday. Salvador Ramirez (also known as Listo), 24, of West Chester is the final defendant to plead in this case. Timothy J. Plancon, Special Agent in Charge, United States Drug Enforcement...

DETROIT – Two men from California were sentenced this month for their role in a drug conspiracy that resulted in, what was at the time, the third largest fentanyl seizure in the United States, announced United States Attorney Matthew Schneider. Schneider was joined in the announcement by Special Agent in...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – David L. Dobbins, 39, of Urbancrest, Ohio, was sentenced in United States District Court to 240 months in prison for dealing narcotics that resulted in an overdose death. U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent in Charge Timothy J. Plancon, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio...

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – United States Attorney Andrew Birge announced today that Alex Alberto Castro received 42 years in prison for conspiring to distribute heroin and cocaine. A federal jury convicted Castro in October 2018. He was the lead defendant of a 20-plus defendant drug trial. Chief United States District...

CLEVELAND- Six people from Ohio were indicted in federal court for their roles in a health care fraud conspiracy in which Medicaid was billed $48 million for drug and alcohol recovery services which were not provided, not medically necessary, lacked proper documentation, or had other issues that made them ineligible...

DALLAS - A 26-year-old citizen of Mexico was sentenced today to 135 months in federal prison after authorities caught him transporting fentanyl, a powerful narcotic 50 times more potent than heroin, announced Special Agent in Charge Clyde E. Shelley, Jr. of the Drug Enforcement Administration and U.S. Attorney for the...

TULSA , Okla. – An Owasso physician pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court to leading multiple conspiracies to write fraudulent opioid prescriptions in an effort to support his drug habit. Special Agent in Charge Clyde E. Shelley, Jr., of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and United States Attorney Trent...