FRESNO, Calif. - Two sentences for drug trafficking were handed down on Monday for cases originating in Bakersfield. Martin Barragan, 39, of Bakersfield, was sentenced by United States District Judge Lawrence J. O'Neill to four years in prison for using an interstate facility to aid racketeering. According to court documents...

FRESNO, Calif. - Gamaliel Salas-Mendoza, aka Rene Salas-(Salas), 38, an undocumented alien from Mexico, was sentenced today to 11 years and eight months in prison for conspiring with his cousin Miguel Sanchez-Mendoza, 46, to distribute and to possess with the intent to distribute methamphetamine, heroin, and cocaine. United States District...

FRESNO, Calif. - Canadian citizen Armitdeep Mann, 33, of Toronto, Canada, was sentenced today to five years and one month in prison by United States District Judge Anthony W. Ishii for conspiracy to distribute and possess with the intent to distribute cocaine. According to court documents, between July 1, 2012...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Andre Cawthorne, 40, of Vallejo, and Eileen Knight, 43, of Los Angeles, entered guilty pleas to drug trafficking charges arising out of a wide-ranging investigation into the distribution MDMA, popularly known as the drug “Ecstasy,” crack cocaine, heroin, Oxycodone, and marijuana in the Vallejo area. According to...

OAKLAND, Calif. - On Sept. 4, 2014, a federal grand jury indicted Doctor Michael Roger Chiarottino, with fourteen counts of distributing Schedule II controlled substances, and one count of distributing a Schedule III controlled substance outside the usual course of professional practice and without a legitimate medical purpose. The Indictment...

LOS ANGELES - Approximately 1,000 law enforcement officials, including the DEA Los Angeles’s Field Division’s High Intensity Drug Trafficking (HIDTA) Southern California Drug Task Force, fanned out across the Fashion District in downtown Los Angeles and executed dozens of search and arrest warrants linked to businesses suspected of using a...

FRESNO, Calif. - United States District Judge Anthony W. Ishii sentenced Sam Kounhavong, aka Inpong Kounhavong, 52, of Fresno, today to two years in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release, for his involvement in a large-scale marijuana cultivation operation in Stanislaus County that was irrigated by...

SAN JOSE, Calif. - Aris Aristidis Vavasis pleaded guilty in federal court yesterday to Felony Distribution of Unapproved New Drugs and Felony Distribution of Misbranded Drugs, announced United States Attorney Melinda Haag, Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent in Charge Jay Fitzpatrick, and U.S. Food and Drug Administration Office of Criminal...

FRESNO, Calif. - A federal grand jury returned a two-count indictment today against Jimmy Gil, 34, of Shafter, Jose Luis Montoya-Salazar, (Montoya), 42, of Mexico City, and Luis Ricardo Eslava-(Eslava), 42, of Sinaloa, Mexico, charging them with conspiring to import, distribute, and possess with intent to distribute cocaine. Montoya was...

LOS ANGELES - A Dutch national pleaded guilty late Tuesday to federal drug trafficking and money laundering charges, admitting he conspired to run a secret, on-line narcotics marketplace known as the “The Farmer's Market” that sold controlled substances such as LSD, Ecstasy, and marijuana to thousands of customers around the...