NEW YORK CITY – Audrey Strauss, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Dermot Shea, the Commissioner of the New York City Police Department , and Ray Donovan, Special Agent in Charge of the New York Division of the Drug Enforcement Administration, announced that Jose Luis...

BROOKLYN, NY - Earlier today, in federal court in Brooklyn, Alvaro Vivero Rendon was sentenced to 18 years’ imprisonment by United States District Judge Edward R. Korman for conspiracy to internationally distribute cocaine. As part of the sentence, the Court entered a forfeiture money judgment of $20 million. Vivero pleaded...

LUBBOCK, TX - Forty defendants – including 15 arrested in Wednesday’s “Operation Taste the Rainbow” in Lubbock – have been charged with gun and drug crimes, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Prerak Shah. The men and women, all allegedly tied to methamphetamine trafficking in and around Lubbock, have been charged in...

DALLAS – A Mexican national and high-ranking member of the Los Zetas cartel received a life sentence for drug trafficking violations in the Eastern District of Texas, announced DEA Special Agent in Charge Eduardo A. Chávez today. Hugo Cesar Roman-Chavarria, also known as “El Vecino,” pleaded guilty on August 23...

BUFFALO, N.Y. – Results of the first 60-days of the federal Violence Prevention and Elimination Response (VIPER) Initiative were announced today. VIPER sought to address the dramatic increase in gun violence in the City of Buffalo during the first half of 2021. The initial 60-day period of VIPER covered the...

BROOKLYN, NY - Earlier today, in federal court in Brooklyn, Gilberto Melgarejo pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute illegal drugs over the “dark web.” Co-defendant Brooke Gray pleaded guilty to the same charge on August 10, 2021. Melgarejo and Gray participated in dozens of...

NEW YORK – Special Agent in Charge Ray Donovan of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s New York Division and New York Attorney General Letitia James announced today the arrests of 12 individuals for their roles in a drug trafficking operation that transported cocaine from Puerto Rico to Buffalo and other...

BUFFALO, N.Y. – U.S. Attorney James P. Kennedy, Jr. and U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent in Charge Ray Donovan, New York Division announced Robert Jones, 48, of Lockport, NY, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Lawrence J. Vilardo to possessing with intent to distribute cocaine. The charge carries carry...

ROCHESTER, N.Y. – U.S. Attorney James P. Kennedy, Jr. and U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent in Charge Ray Donovan, New York Division announced today that Brian Cintron, 37, and Edwin Junior Gallardo-Ortiz, 35, both of Rochester, NY, were arrested and charged by criminal complaint with conspiring and attempting to...

BROOKLYN, NY – An indictment was unsealed today in federal court in Central Islip charging Dr. Barry Arnold, a practicing dentist with an office in Valley Stream, New York, with writing illegal prescriptions to women for oxycodone, a Schedule II controlled substance, and alprazolam (“Xanax”), a Schedule IV controlled substance...