LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Today, a federal indictment was unsealed charging three Veterans (VA) employees with conspiring to steal prescription medications, including opioids, from the VA John L. McClellan Memorial Veterans Hospital in Little Rock, and conspiring to distribute those drugs. The superseding indictment, returned by a federal grand jury...

WASHINGTON - DEA and the Southern District of New York today announced the arrival of four individuals from Kenya to New York charged with participating in a massive global drug trafficking enterprise, and includes the leader of a well-known organized crime family in Africa. BAKTASH AKASHA ABDALLA, a/k/a “Baktash Akasha,”...

MONGOMERY, Ala. - Dr. Robert M. Ritchea, 54, of LaGrange, Georgia, pled guilty to conspiring to unlawfully distribute a controlled substance through operating a “pill mill” and money laundering scheme, announced Drug Enforcement Administration Assistant Special Agent-in-Charge Bret Hamilton and United States Attorney George L. Beck, Jr. A “pill mill”...

MOBILE, Ala. - The Drug Enforcement Administration’(DEA’s) national touring exhibit, Drugs: Costs and Consequences, has arrived in Mobile, Alabama. The exhibit, developed by the DEA and the DEA Educational Foundation, opens on February 3, 2017, at the Gulf Coast Exploreum Science Center. In this interactive exploration of the effects of...

WASHINGTON - Acting Attorney General Sally Q. Yates today announced that Joaquin Archivaldo Guzman Loera, known by various aliases including “El Chapo,” will face charges filed in Brooklyn, New York, following his extradition to the United States from Mexico, alleging that he was operating a continuing criminal enterprise and other...

WASHINGTON - Joaquin Archivaldo Guzman Loera, known by various aliases including “El Chapo,” has arrived in the United States to face criminal charges in connection with his leadership of the Mexican organized crime syndicate known as the Sinaloa Cartel. Guzman Loera is charged in six separate indictments throughout the United...

WASHINGTON - McKesson (McKesson), one of the nation’s largest distributors of pharmaceutical drugs, agreed to pay a record $150 million civil penalty for alleged violations of the Controlled Substances (CSA), the U.S. Drug Enforcement (DEA) announced today. The nationwide settlement requires McKesson to suspend sales of controlled substances from distribution...

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - Three defendants were sentenced to federal prison last week for drug trafficking, announced Drug Enforcement (DEA) Assistant Special Agent in Charge Matthew Barden and Kenneth Elser, United States Attorney for the Western District of Arkansas. Santiago (aka Chuco), age 47, of Commerce, Oklahoma, was sentenced to 151...

WASHINGTON - At the invitation of the China Ministry of Public (MPS), the Drug Enforcement (DEA) Acting Administrator Chuck Rosenberg visited China this week to discuss issues of mutual concern and to build on DEA’s existing relationship with Chinese counter-narcotics law enforcement authorities. Rosenberg emphasized the increased cooperation between the...

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - Paul Goston, age 40 of Little Rock, Arkansas, was sentenced today to 41 months in federal prison and three years of supervised release on one count of Felon in Possession of a Firearm announced Drug Enforcement (DEA) Assistant Special Agent in Charge Matthew Bardan and Kenneth Elser...