EL PASO, Texas – Agents and investigators from the Drug Enforcement Administration and Texas Department of Public Safety Criminal Investigation Division conducted multiple independent investigations over the last year focused on identifying and targeting criminal organizations and individuals suspected of prescription drug fraud or manufacture or delivery of a controlled...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Twelve individuals are facing federal drug trafficking and firearms charges as the result of a two-year DEA-led multi-agency investigation into a major New Mexico-based poly-drug trafficking organization allegedly operating between Las Vegas, N.M., and Albuquerque, N.M., under the alleged leadership of Robert Padilla, 42, of Albuquerque. The...

NORFOLK, Va. – Barry Jamel Alexander, 33, of Norfolk, was sentenced today to 13 years in prison for conspiring to distribute heroin. Over the last five years, Alexander sold quantities of heroin in excess of two kilograms to customers on multiple occasions. Alexander sold heroin mixed with fentanyl to a...

NORFOLK, Va. – Over 100 law enforcement agents, officers and other personnel executed Operation High Tide this week, resulting in a series of arrests of individuals allegedly involved in selling drugs and guns in Norfolk, Chesapeake and Portsmouth. Operation High Tide is a large-scale narcotics trafficking and firearms investigation that...

HARRISONBURG, Va., – Iza Mar Rosario-Cruzado, 31, of Harrisonburg, Va., pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court to one count of distributing and possessing with the intent to distribute a mixture of heroin and fentanyl. Rosario-Cruzado further admitted her distribution of this drug mixture resulted in an overdose death. “This...

GREENBELT, Md. – Gerdandino Delgado-Escobar, a/k/a “Pumba,” age 24, of Hyattsville, Md., a member of La Mara Salvatrucha (“MS-13”), sentenced to 51 months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for conspiracy to interfere with interstate commerce by extortion. The sentence was announced by Special Agent in...

GREENBELT, Md. – Today, Jose Augustin Salmeron-Larios (a/k/a Joseph Morales-Martinez, Angel Salvador Gutierrez, Yankee, and Kean), age 26, of Severn, Md., was sentenced to 260 months in federal prison, followed by five years of supervised release, for a conspiracy to participate in a racketeering enterprise known as La Mara Salvatrucha...

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Two Alexandria men, Jose Castro and Martin Vitela, were sentenced today to two and a half years in prison for distribution of heroin and pure methamphetamine. According to court documents, Jose Castro, 23, and Martin Vitela, 25, assisted co-conspirator Fabian Rodriguez Sandoval in the transportation and distribution...

BALTIMORE – On Sept. 5, 2019, Delroy Williams, Jr., 32, of Baltimore, Md., was sentenced to 135 months in federal prison, followed by five years of supervised release, for a conspiracy to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine, and for possession with intent to distribute cocaine and marijuana. The...

GREENBELT, Md. – Today, Coron Demon Johnson, aka Savage, 25, of Baltimore, Md., was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for distribution of heroin. Johnson admitted that an individual died as a result of using heroin that he distributed. According to his...