LOS ANGELES – A San Bernardino County man was arrested today on a federal grand jury indictment that alleges he sold fentanyl to a woman last year who soon afterward suffered a fatal overdose from the powerful synthetic opioid. John Biagianti, 31, of Upland, was arrested this morning at his...

LAS VEGAS – On Tuesday, March 22, 2022, members of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Las Vegas District Office, DEA Fresno Resident Office and the Tulare County High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA) program concluded a multiple month-long investigation of a major narcotic trafficking organization with the arrest of four...

LOS ANGELES – On March 16, 2022, members of the Ventura County Combined Agency Team (VCAT) and the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Los Angeles Field Division concluded a multiple month-long investigation of a major narcotic trafficking organization with the arrest of seven suspects and the seizure of a...

LOS ANGELES —Today, law enforcement investigators served nine arrest warrants in multiple locations throughout Los Angeles and Riverside Counties. In March of 2020, the DEA launched Operation Crystal Shield to focus efforts on main U.S. methamphetamine trafficking transportation hubs. DEA identified eight major methamphetamine transportation hubs where Operation Crystal Shield...

LOS ANGELES —The culmination of a three-month investigation resulted in a Santa Barbara methamphetamine distributor being sentenced on November 8, 2021 to 180 months in federal prison for narcotics violations. Cesar Castillo-Pena, 35, of San Bernardino, California, was sentenced by United States District Judge R. Gary Klausner. On July 28...

LOS ANGELES – Today, the Drug Enforcement Administration issued a Public Safety Alert warning Americans of the alarming increase in the lethality and availability of fake prescription pills containing fentanyl and methamphetamine. DEA’s Public Safety Alert, the first in six years, seeks to raise public awareness of a significant nationwide...

WASHINGTON – Yesterday, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) identified Audias Flores Silva (Flores Silva) as a significant foreign narcotics trafficker pursuant to the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act (Kingpin Act). Flores Silva (a.k.a. “Jardinero”) is one of the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion’s...

LOS ANGELES – A dual U.S.-Mexican citizen pleaded guilty today to willfully engaging in financial dealings with Mexican companies that had been identified as Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers by the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). According to court documents, Jessica Johanna Oseguera Gonzalez, 34...

Los Angeles – Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated Mexican national Juan Manuel Abouzaid El Bayeh (“Abouzaid El Bayeh”) as a Specially Designated Narcotics Trafficker pursuant to the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act (Kingpin Act). OFAC designated Abouzaid El Bayeh for his...

Los Angeles - Today, Attorney General William P. Barr and Drug Enforcement Administration Acting Administrator Timothy J. Shea announced the results of Operation Crystal Shield, DEA’s six-month-long effort targeting the command and control elements of Mexican cartels that operate major methamphetamine “transportation hubs” in the United States. At a press...