The Executive Board of the Midwest High Intensity Drug Trafficking (HIDTA) has recognized the Drug Enforcement (DEA) for its role in reducing drug trafficking in the region. The Board has awarded the annual Outstanding Cooperative Effort Award to John Cornille and Larry Fox of the DEA St. Louis Regional Wire...

LOS ANGELES - A dozen people associated with a chain of nine marijuana stores that operated across Orange and Los Angeles counties were arrested this morning on federal drug trafficking charges. The 12 arrested are among 14 people named in a 14-count indictment returned last week by a federal grand...

LOS ANGELES - A federal grand jury has returned a superseding indictment that charges 16 defendants with being part of a drug trafficking organization that illegally obtained and distributed more than 900,000 OxyContin pills obtained in part through fraud against public insurance programs such as Medicare. One of the defendants...

LOS ANGELES - On October 12, 2012, a federal jury in Los Angeles convicted Mr. Aaron Sandusky, 41, of Rancho Cucamonga, former president of G3 Holistics, Inc., a marijuana business operating in the Inland Empire, of one count of conspiracy to manufacture marijuana plants, to possess with intent to distribute...

ST. LOUIS - For the fifth time in two years, Americans emptied medicine cabinets, bedside tables, and kitchen drawers of unwanted, unused, and expired prescription drugs and took them to collection sites located throughout the United States as part of the Drug Enforcement Administration’(DEA) National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day. Last...

LOS ANGELES - A Los Angeles area toy wholesaler, its two owners, and the company’s primary bookkeeper pleaded guilty today to federal charges related to their participation in an elaborate scheme known as a Black Market Peso Exchange, which enables drug trafficking organizations in Mexico and Colombia to launder proceeds...

EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. - On September 17, 2012, John Arnold, 25, of East St. Louis, Illinois, pled guilty to a single count Indictment charging him with Possession With the Intent to Distribute Crack Cocaine, the Drug Enforcement Administration and United States Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, Stephen...

EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. - The Drug Enforcement Administration and Federal Prosecutors today announce that a Randolph County resident was sentenced on a one-count indictment, charging conspiracy to manufacture methamphetamine. Bonnie L. Wahl, a/k/a Bonnie Biesterfeld, 45, of Sparta, IL, was sentenced to 60 months in prison, followed by 5...

EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. - The Drug Enforcement Administration and Stephen R. Wigginton, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, announced today that on September 12, 2012, Penelope J. Reed, a/k/a “Penny Warren,” 36, of Chester, IL, was convicted by a jury in U.S. District Court in Benton...

EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. - The Drug Enforcement Administration and United States Attorney’s Office today announced that Ever Astorga-Ramirez, 33, who most recently resided in Phoenix, Arizona, was charged by Criminal Complaint on September 10, 2012, with one count of Possession With the Intent to Distribute Methamphetamine. If convicted, Astorga-Ramirez...