GREENBELT, Md. - U.S. District Judge Roger W. Titus sentenced Raymond Bullette III, age 34, of Los Angeles, California, today to life in prison followed by 10 years of supervised release for conspiring to distribute large quantities of (PCP). Bullette had previously been convicted of five felony drug offenses in...

GREENBELT, Md. - U.S. District Judge Deborah K. Chasanow sentenced Ishmael Ford-Bey, age 40, of Mitchellville, Maryland, late yesterday to 33 years in prison, followed by 10 years of supervised release, for conspiracy, possession with intent to distribute cocaine, using a phone to facilitate drug distribution, and money laundering. Judge...

NORFOLK, Va. - German Alvarado Ponce, aka Herman Alvaniz, 37, of Chesapeake, Virginia, was sentenced today to 240 months in prison, followed by five of supervised release on a drug conspiracy charge. Ponce and five co-defendants were indicted Dec. 17, 2014, and have all pleaded guilty. According to court documents...

BALTIMORE - A federal grand jury has returned three indictments charging a total of 16 individuals with drug conspiracy and other charges for operating purported pain management clinics that the indictments allege were actually “pill mills.” The indictments were returned on May 20, 2015, and unsealed late yesterday upon the...

GREENBELT, Md. - U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang sentenced Christian Diamond Byrd, age 44, of Laurel, Maryland today to 15 years in prison followed by four years of supervised release for distribution of heroin. Judge Chuang also ordered Byrd to forfeit $440,000, the proceeds of his drug distribution. The sentence...

WASHINGTON - The National Heroin Threat Assessment (NHTA), released today by the United States Drug Enforcement (DEA), shows heroin use and availability on the rise and causing more overdose deaths than at any time in the last decade. Although fewer people presently use heroin than other illicit drugs, the heroin...

NORFOLK, Va. - Allen Andre Brown, 36, of Portsmouth, pleaded guilty today to conspiracy to distribute narcotics. Karl C. Colder, Special Agent in Charge for Drug Enforcement Administration’(DEA) Washington Office; Dana J. Boente, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; and Mark R. Herring, Attorney General of Virginia...

WASHINGTON - DEA Special Agent Joseph Piersante today became the first-ever member of DEA to receive the Secretary of Defense Medal for the Defense of Freedom - . Piersante was struck by enemy gun fire while on a counter-terrorism and narcotics mission in Afghanistan in 2011. The Defense of Freedom...

BALTIMORE - U.S. District Judge Richard D. Bennett sentenced Heather Lynn Koons, 33, of Hagerstown, Maryland today to 37 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for distribution of heroin to an individual, resulting in his death from a heroin overdose. Judge Bennett also ordered Koons to...

GREENBELT, Md. - A federal grand jury has indicted Jeffrey Sean Nazari, 44, of Silver Spring, Maryland, on charges of distributing a controlled substance analogue resulting in death, possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance analogue, possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime and being...