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...

McALLEN, Texas - Ivan Velasquez-Caballero, aka "Talivan" or "50," has entered guilty pleas to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute controlled substances and conspiracy to launder monetary instruments, announced Drug Enforcement (DEA) Acting Special Agent in Charge Steven S. Whipple and United States Attorney Kenneth Magidson. Velasquez-Caballero, 44, of...

LAREDO, Texas - Drug Enforcement (DEA) Acting Special Agent in Charge Steven S. Whipple and United States Attorney Kenneth Magidson announced today Jose Gomez-Ramirez, 32, of Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, has been ordered to prison for his role in a conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute cocaine. Gomez-Ramirez pleaded...

LAREDO, Texas - Three separate indictments have been partially unsealed following the arrest of six Laredo residents on a variety of charges including methamphetamine and/or cocaine trafficking and felon in possession of a firearm, announced Drug Enforcement Administration Acting Special Agent in Charge Steven S. Whipple and United States Attorney...

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...

SEATTLE - Gavin Dry, a plastic surgeon who practices in Kirkland, Washington has agreed to settle federal civil penalty claims brought by the U.S. Attorney's Office on behalf of the federal Drug Enforcement (DEA). Based on evidence and information obtained through DEA's investigation, from 2007 through 2011, Gavin Dry forged...

BOISE, Idaho - Austin Serb, 20, Christopher Snyder, 24, and Andrew Colwell, 23, of Boise, Idaho, appeared in federal court on March 11, 2014, on a nine-count federal indictment charging them and eight others with conspiracy to distribute oxycodone and heroin; distributing oxycodone, and distributing heroin. “Opiate addiction is a...

LAREDO, Texas - Edgar Loera and Miguel Angel Vives-Macias have been convicted by a federal jury of multiple counts in a drug trafficking conspiracy involving heroin and methamphetamine, announced Drug Enforcement (DEA) Acting Special Agent in Charge Steven Whipple and United States Attorney Kenneth Magidson. The jury returned its verdicts...

SEATTLE - Thirteen people were arrested and law enforcement seized 50 pounds of crystal meth, $160,000 in cash and seven guns in the culmination of a lengthy investigation of a Pierce County based drug trafficking ring. The Drug Enforcement Administration led the wire-tap investigation which identified the members of a...

CHRISTI, Texas - Jose Fidel Guajardo aka "Garfield," 42, a leader of a drug trafficking and money laundering conspiracy, has been handed a significant federal sentence, announced Drug Enforcement (DEA) Acting Special Agent in Charge Steven S. Whipple and United States Attorney Kenneth Magidson. Today, U.S. District Judge Janis Graham...