MIAMI – Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Acting Administrator Timothy J. Shea today announced that the DEA will direct resources to help reduce violent crime in communities throughout the country. Under this initiative, called Project Safeguard, DEA will identify and prioritize ongoing drug trafficking investigations with a nexus to violent crime...

Fort Worth, TX - Thirty members of an alleged methamphetamine distribution ring have been charged with drug crimes, announced Special Agent in Charge Eduardo A. Chavez of the DEA Dallas Field Division. Following a painstaking investigation led by DEA Dallas’s High Intensity Drug Trafficking Group, 21 of the 30 defendants...

LUBBOCK, TX - Nine individuals in Lubbock have been charged with conspiracy to distribute cocaine and other related drug crimes, announced by DEA Dallas Field Division Special Agent in Charge Eduardo A. Chavez, who oversees DEA operations throughout the region. Nine members of a Lubbock drug trafficking organization were arrested...

Lubbock, TX - Two Texas Syndicate members, a prison gang, were sentenced today to a combined 50 years in prison for drug trafficking in Lubbock, announced by DEA Dallas Field Division Special Agent in Charge Eduardo A. Chavez. Jose Daniel Flores, aka “Cuate,” 43, was sentenced to 360 months in...

SEBRING, Fla . – On September 30, 2010, a multi-agency federal, state, and local task force conducted an operation in which more than 70 people were arrested on drug trafficking and gun marcharges. For more than a year, federal, state, and local law enforcement worked on a massive operation dubbed...

TAMPA, Fla. - Jesus Soto-Martinez (41, Michoacan, Mexico) was sentenced to 21 years and 3 months in federal prison for conspiring to distribute and possess with the intent to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine while onboard a vessel subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, forcibly interfering...

FORT WORTH, TX - Forty-nine defendants, including two doctors and five pharmacists, have been charged with participating in an $18 million pill mill scheme, announced by the DEA Dallas Field Division. “Medical professionals hold the public’s trust to provide what is in the best interests of their patients,” said DEA...

FORT MYERS, Fla. - A federal jury has found Edgar Vazquez (35, Fort Myers) guilty of possessing with the intent to distribute more than 500 grams of cocaine. Vazquez faces a minimum mandatory term of 5 years, and up to 40 years, in federal prison. Vazquez had been indicted on...

TAMPA, Fla. - An indictment charging eight members of a drug trafficking organization with offenses related to the distribution of cocaine and heroin was unsealed today. (See chart for details). According to court records, this investigation targeted illegal drug traffickers operating an open-air drug market in the Robles Park Housing...

OCALA, Fla. - Anthony Michele DeCotis, Jr. (32, Eustis) was sentenced to 18 years in federal prison for possessing with intent to distribute methamphetamine and possessing of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. DeCotis had pleaded guilty on January 29, 2020. According to court records, on August...