WASHINGTON - The Drug Enforcement (DEA), Customs and Border (CBP), Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security (HSI), Federal Bureau of (FBI), Internal Revenue (IRS) and other federal, state, and local partners announced the culmination of Project Synergy Phase II, an ongoing effort targeting every level of the dangerous global synthetic...

BOISE, Idaho - Gilberto Duran-Contreras, 51, a Mexican national, pleaded guilty on April 22, 2014, in federal court to unlawfully manufacturing more than 1,000 marijuana plants, and damage to government land. According to the plea agreement, on September 15, 2013, Duran-Contreras was arrested on Hwy 21 near Lowman, a few...

WASHINGTON - Arturo Gallegos Castrellon, aka “Benny,” “Farmero,” “51,” “Guero,” “Pecas,” “Tury,” and “86,” 35, of Chihuahua, Mexico, the Barrio Azteca Lieutenant who ordered the March 2010 murders of a U.S. Consulate employee, her husband and the husband of another U.S. Consulate employee, was sentenced today to serve life in...

WASHINGTON - After collecting more than 1,700 tons of expired, unwanted prescription medications over the past three-and-a-half years, the Drug Enforcement (DEA) and more than 4,200 national, tribal, and community law enforcement partners will hold another National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day on Saturday, April 26th. Americans can take their pills...

WASHINGTON - Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Michele M. Leonhart, the Administrator of the United States Drug Enforcement (DEA), today announced that Slawomir Soborski was extradited from Estonia where he had been arrested for conspiracy to import cocaine into the United...

SEATTLE - The leader of a marijuana manufacturing and distribution conspiracy was sentenced today to five years in prison for drug and money laundering charges. Scott Johnson, 48, of Bellingham, Washington also forfeited property in Whatcom County and Priest River Idaho, as well as multiple luxury vehicles, snowmobiles, boats and...

APR 09 - ANCHORAGE, Alaska - On April 3, 2014, an Anchorage jury convicted Loren Kent Dodds, 48, of Palmer, Alaska, of one count of manufacturing marijuana. The jury also returned a verdict forfeiting Dodds' residence to the government because it was used to facilitate his marijuana growing operation. According...

BOISE, Idaho - Andrew Polney, 52, of Boise, Idaho, was sentenced on April 7, 2014, in U.S. District Court to 130 months in prison followed by five years of supervised release for possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance. Polney was also sentenced to 60 months in prison followed...

SEATTLE - Today, a civil complaint was filed by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Washington against an Arizona physician who violated the Controlled Substances Act by prescribing narcotic painkillers in Washington state without having a DEA registration number in Washington. Barton Butterbaugh was the Chief Medical...

SEATTLE - A former hospital anesthesiologist was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Seattle to five years in prison and three years of supervised release for distribution of oxycodone. Hieu Tu Le, 40, of Snohomish, Washington, a medical doctor licensed in Washington State since 2004, operated medical clinics in...