DENVER – With robust public participation over the course of 17 prior events, the National Prescription Drug Take Back Day Initiative continues to remove ever-higher amounts of opioids and other medicines from the nation’s homes, where they are vulnerable to misuse, theft or abuse by family members and visitors, including...

SAN DIEGO – Drug dealer Trevon Antone Lucas was sentenced in federal court today to 15 years in prison for selling the counterfeit oxycodone pills laced with fentanyl that caused the overdose death of a La Jolla resident in June of 2018. Lucas, a resident of Highland, Calif., pleaded guilty...

SAN DIEGO – Dr. Roger A. Kasendorf, an osteopathic physician practicing in La Jolla, agreed to pay $125,000 to resolve allegations that he illegally prescribed opioids to his patients. The highly addictive and frequently abused opioids he prescribed included fentanyl, hydromorphone, oxymorphone, and oxycodone. In response to the Justice Department’s...

DENVER – United States Attorney Jason R. Dunn announced that Dr. Andrew Mark Ho, age 54, of Denver, pled guilty yesterday to illegally dispensing or illegally causing to be dispensed oxycodone, a controlled substance. Ho pled guilty before Chief U.S. District Court Judge Philip B. Brimmer. Judge Brimmer is scheduled...

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – United States Attorney Jason R. Dunn announced that Long Luong, aka “Peter”, was sentenced yesterday to serve 84 months (7 years) in federal prison for conspiracy to manufacture and possess with intent to distribute 1000 kilograms or more of marijuana and 1000 plants or more. The...

SALT LAKE CITY – The Drug Enforcement Administration urges its DEA-registered practitioners and members of the public to be cautious of telephone calls from criminals posing as DEA or other law enforcement personnel threatening arrest and prosecution for supposed violations of federal drug laws or involvement in drug-trafficking activities. DEA...

SAN DIEGO – Eight indictments were unsealed today in San Diego federal court charging 85 members of drug distribution networks linked to the Sinaloa Cartel, with federal drug trafficking, money laundering and firearms offenses. During the coordinated takedown that began early this morning, investigators executed over a dozen search warrants...

SAN DIEGO – Uriah Odish pleaded guilty in federal court today, admitting that he supplied fentanyl that led to the fatal overdose of 25-year-old Tiffany Hansen, of La Mesa, on Jan. 23, 2018. According to his plea agreement, Odish sold more than 500 grams of what he knew to be...

SAN DIEGO – Christopher James Stracuzzi entered a guilty plea in federal court today, admitting that he distributed fentanyl that resulted in the death of a San Diego man. Stracuzzi is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 2, 2019, at 9 a.m. before U.S. District Judge Thomas J. Whelan. According...

SAN DIEGO – Three South American cocaine traffickers were sentenced in federal court this week after being convicted of transporting approximately 1,230 kilograms (2,706 pounds) of cocaine—worth more than $28 million USD—on the high seas. The sentencing hearings followed a week-long trial in April in which a federal jury convicted...