SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – Three southwest Missouri residents are among five defendants indicted for their roles in a drug-trafficking conspiracy after federal agents seized 16 kilograms of cocaine while arresting two co-defendants in Texas. Mario Jose Castillo, 55, of Springfield, Mo.; Christhian Eduardo Cruz-Pineda, 22, a citizen of Honduras residing in...

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – An inmate of the Lawton Correctional Facility in Oklahoma has been sentenced in federal court for leading a conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine in Greene and Polk Counties while he was incarcerated. Joshua A. Ramirez, 39, who has no legal address, was sentenced by U.S. Chief District Judge...

SPRINGFIFELD, Mo. – Springfield, Mo., man was sentenced in federal court today for his role in a conspiracy to distribute heroin in Greene County, Mo. James D. Elbert, 42, was sentenced by U.S. Chief District Judge Beth Phillips to 10 years in federal prison without parole. On July 5, 2023...

Today, May 7, 2024 is National Fentanyl Awareness Day. This annual observance is held to bring needed attention and awareness to the threats from fentanyl and fake pills – and the lives lost to poisonings and overdoses. Fentanyl is the most significant drug threat the United States has faced in...

Thanks to community members, community partners, volunteers and members of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Rocky Mountain Field Division (RMFD) the 26th National Prescription Drug Take Back Day was again a success. This past Saturday, often in challenging weather, people brought in their unneeded, unwanted or expired prescription medications to dozens...

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. – U.S. District Judge Stephen N. Limbaugh Jr. on Thursday sentenced a Poplar Bluff, Missouri, man to 10 years in prison for repeatedly selling methamphetamine and another two years for violating his supervised release for an earlier heroin distribution case. Joshua E. Forbes, 31, sold meth to...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – An Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, man has pleaded guilty to his role in a conspiracy to distribute cocaine after law enforcement officers seized more than $1 million worth of cocaine from a rental truck that was stopped on Interstate 70 in Lafayette County, Mo. Luis Gerardo Nieto-Acosta...

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge John A. Ross on Wednesday sentenced a man from St. Louis County, Missouri, who sold drugs to a woman who later died, to seven years in prison. Donald Lawrence Bateman, 28, pleaded guilty in January to distribution of a controlled substance and possession with...

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Matthew T. Schelp on Wednesday sentenced a man who sold millions of counterfeit Xanax pills on the Darknet to two years in prison, fined him $10,000 and ordered him to forfeit nearly $1 million. Brandon Adams, 27, will also be on supervised release for...

ST. LOUIS – A man from Texas on Friday admitted selling 1.4 kilograms of methamphetamine to an undercover Drug Enforcement Administration agent and giving the agent another kilogram of cocaine to sell. On Aug. 16, 2022, Marco Chavira met with the agent in El Paso. Chavira believed the agent was...