ALBUQUERQUE - Juan Velazquez, 26, of Las Cruces, N.M., pleaded guilty today in federal court in Las Cruces, N.M., to distributing cocaine and participating in a conspiracy to distribute cocaine in Doña Ana County, N.M. Velazquez was arrested in Sept. 2016, on an indictment alleging cocaine trafficking charges. The 18-count...

ALBUQUERQUE - Amber Kay Otero, 31, of Carlsbad, N.M., pleaded guilty today in federal court in Las Cruces, N.M., to the misdemeanor offense of unlawfully possessing a controlled substance. Otero was arrested on Sept. 23, 2016, following an investigation initiated after the DEA received a report of theft or loss...

ALBUQUERQUE - David Nunez of Santa Fe, N.M., pleaded guilty today in federal court in Albuquerque, N.M., to the misdemeanor offense of dispensing a controlled substance, testosterone, without a prescription. Nunez was a licensed pharmacist and the owner of a pharmacy in Santa Fe at the time he committed the...

ALBUQUERQUE - Ivan Romero, 40, the leader of a heroin trafficking organization based in Taos County, N.M. pleaded guilty earlier this week to federal heroin and money laundering charges filed as the result of a 15-month DEA-led multi-agency investigation. His brother, Ricco Romero, 29, and his wife, Melissa Romero, 37...

PHILADELPHIA - Special Agent in Charge Gary Tuggle of the Drug Enforcement Administration’(DEA) Philadelphia Division announced today that 39,418.87 pounds of prescription drugs were collected across Pennsylvania and Delaware during DEA’s National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day event this past Saturday, October 22nd. A specific breakdown of amounts collected by regions...

PHILADELPHIA - Special Agent in Charge Gary Tuggle of the Drug Enforcement Administration’(DEA) Philadelphia Division announced today that the DEA will conduct its 12th National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day event on Saturday, October 22nd between 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. As with previous Take-Back events, approximately 353 collection sites will...

EL PASO - Samuel Velasco Gurrola, 41 years old, faces mandatory life in federal prison after a jury convicted him this afternoon of his role in a murder-for-hire Jurors convicted Gurrola of three counts of conspiracy to commit murder in a foreign country and four counts of conspiracy to cause...

EL PASO - Christopher Chavez, 40, of El Paso, Texas, was sentenced today to 60 months of imprisonment, followed by four years of supervised release, for his role in a cocaine trafficking organization that transported large amounts of cocaine into Connecticut. Chavez also was ordered to pay a $25,000 fine...

EL PASO - A Barrio (BA) gang associate was sentenced today to 240 months in prison for his participation in a racketeering conspiracy and drug trafficking offenses. Luis Humberto Hernandez Celis, aka Pac, 32, of El Paso, was sentenced before U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone of the Western District of...

PHILADELPHIA - Drug Enforcement (DEA) Special Agent in Charge Gary Tuggle, along with Federal Bureau of (FBI) Special Agent in Charge Michael Harpster and U.S. Attorney Zane David Memeger of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, announced today that Chasing the Dragon: The Life of an Opiate Addict, a documentary about...