MIAMI - As U.S. overdose deaths reach a devastating new height, claiming a new victim every five minutes, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has revealed a direct link between fentanyl-related overdose deaths and criminal drug networks in Mexico. These groups are harnessing social media platforms to bring drugs laced with...

OCALA, Fla. – Following eight days of trial in federal court, David Chappell Fey (57, Belleview) and Shari Lynn Gunter (58, Ocklawaha) have each been found guilty as charged for the murder of a government witness. The trial required special accommodations: a separate jury heard evidence for each defendant. In...

FORT MYERS, Fla. – U.S. District Judge Sheri Polster Chappell today sentenced Gerald Michael Abraham, 76, of Naples, Florida. to three years in federal prison for dispensing controlled substances (oxycodone and amphetamine) for no legitimate medical purpose. The court also ordered Abraham to forfeit the following items to the United...

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – U.S. District Judge Brian J. Davis today sentenced Eddie “Macho” Martinez-Marquez (33, Kissimmee) to 10 years and 1 month in federal prison for conspiring to possess with the intent to distribute and to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine. As part of his sentence, the court...

TAMPA, Fla. – Karin Hoppmann, Acting United States (U.S.) Attorney for the Middle District of Florida, announced the unsealing of a 2019 indictment charging Piero Antonio Lubo-Barros, a/k/a “Nostradamus,” (41, Colombia, South America) with conspiracy to distribute large amounts of cocaine knowing and intending it to be imported into the...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Roger Slaughter, 35, of Perry, Florida, was sentenced to five years in federal prison followed by four years of supervised release. Slaughter’s sentence was the result of a guilty plea to one count of possession with intent to distribute five grams or more of actual methamphetamine. The...

OCALA, Fla. –Devonne L. Walker (36, Lady Lake) was sentenced in federal court today to 25 years in federal prison for conspiracy to distribute controlled substances. Walker had pleaded guilty on July 28, 2021. According to evidence presented at the sentencing hearing, Walker was the leader and organizer of a...

MIAMI – A Florida man pleaded guilty yesterday to unlawfully distributing opioids at his pain management clinic in Miami, Florida. According to court documents, Habib Geagea Palacios, 40, of Miami, owned a cash-only pain management clinic in Miami, Florida named General Care Center, Inc. At General Care Center, Palacios paid...

MIAMI – The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), along with its law enforcement partners, has removed close to 745,000 pounds of unneeded prescriptions from medicine cabinets across the country as part of DEA’s ongoing commitment to turn the tide against the U.S. opioid epidemic. Following last month’s 21st National Prescription Drug...

PHILADELPHIA – Acting Special Agent in Charge Thomas Hodnett of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) Philadelphia Field Division announced today that approximately 34,150 pounds of prescription drugs were collected across Pennsylvania and Delaware by the DEA and its partners during the Prescription Drug Take Back Day event on October 23...