SAN DIEGO – DEA Acting Administrator Uttam Dhillon today announced the publication of the 2019 National Drug Threat Assessment, which outlines the threats posed to the United States by domestic and international drug trafficking and the abuse of illicit drugs. “This year’s report illustrates a shifting drug landscape in the...

SAN DIEGO – After a challenging multi-year, inter-agency investigation, utilizing technology capabilities, intelligence gathering, and community outreach, law enforcement partners on the San Diego Tunnel Task Force have exposed the longest illicit cross-border tunnel ever discovered along the Southwest border. The tunnel originates in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico in an...

SAN DIEGO – Egisto Salerno, a medical doctor practicing in San Diego, pleaded guilty to opioid distribution in federal court today, admitting that he signed bogus prescriptions for multiple deceased or incarcerated patients. According to his plea agreement, Salerno, 75, illegally distributed 78,544 hydrocodone pills. Hydrocodone is an opioid pain...

SAN DIEGO – Orlando Balderas Guerrero, of Menifee, Calif., was sentenced in federal court today to 10 years in custody for participating in a conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine. According to his plea agreement, Guerrero admitted that for a one-year period, he obtained bulk methamphetamine from a broker in Mexico and...

SAN DIEGO – April Spring Kelly, of San Diego, was sentenced in federal court on Friday to 14 years in prison for conspiring to smuggle more than 450,000 fentanyl pills from Mexico into the United States during a nine-month period ending in October 2018. According to admissions in her plea...

LOS ANGELES – The culmination of a four-year investigation resulted in a member of the Sinaloa Drug Cartel being sentenced on Dec. 6, 2019 to 180 months in federal prison for narcotics and weapons violations. Jesus Raul Salazar-Espinoza a.k.a. “Pedro,” 51, of Sinaloa, Mexico, was sentenced by United States District...

SAN DIEGO – Americans nationwide have once again shown their strong support for DEA’s National Prescription Drug Take Back Day by dropping off nearly 883,000 pounds of medications during the October 2019 Take Back event. DEA, along with its law enforcement partners, has now collected nearly 12.7 million pounds of...

SAN DIEGO – The Drug Enforcement Administration is alerting the public of dangerous counterfeit pills killing Americans. Mexican drug cartels are manufacturing mass quantities of counterfeit prescription pills containing fentanyl, a dangerous synthetic opioid that is lethal in minute doses, for distribution throughout North America. Based on a sampling of...

LOS ANGELES – The Drug Enforcement Administration is alerting the public of dangerous counterfeit pills killing Americans. Mexican drug cartels are manufacturing mass quantities of counterfeit prescription pills containing fentanyl, a dangerous synthetic opioid that is lethal in minute doses, for distribution throughout North America. Based on a sampling of...

LOS ANGELES – Over the course of 17 prior events, the National Drug Take Back Day Initiative continues to remove ever-higher amounts of opioids and other medications from the nation’s homes, where they are vulnerable to misuse, theft or abuse by family members and visitors, including children and teens. In...