MIAMI – This week, the Drug Enforcement Administration announced a new initiative, Operation Overdrive, aimed at combatting the rising rates of drug-related violent crime and overdose deaths plaguing American communities. Last fall, DEA initiated a data-driven approach using national crime statistics and CDC data to identify hot spots of drug-related...

ORLANDO, Fla. –Jesus Manuel Rodriguez-Castillo (39, Kissimmee) was sentenced to eight years and four months in federal prison for distributing fentanyl-laced heroin. Rodriguez-Castillo had pleaded guilty on October 5, 2021. According to court documents, Rodriguez-Castillo sold approximately 290 grams of fentanyl-laced heroin to a cooperating source and an undercover DEA...

PHOENIX - Nurse Practitioner Deborah Ann Cooney, 59 years old, has been indicted on 14 criminal charges related to her alleged illegal opioid prescribing practices at a clinic she operates in Mesa, Arizona. The investigation conducted by the Phoenix Office of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) developed allegations of improper...

PHOENIX - On January 20, 2022, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) arrested three subjects who were distributing methamphetamine and fake M30 pills suspected to contain fentanyl from BSG Auto Sales in Phoenix, Arizona. Investigators seized from the auto dealership approximately 20 pounds of methamphetamine, 4,000 M30 pills suspected to...

ORLANDO, Fla. – U.S. District Judge Paul G. Byron has sentenced Jose Armando Delgado Martinez (35, Orlando) to 14 years in federal prison for his role in a conspiracy to distribute over a kilogram of fentanyl and fentanyl-laced heroin. Delgado-Martinez had pleaded guilty on November 9, 2021. Two of Delgado-Martinez’s...

ORLANDO , F la. –Davel Theodore Spady (35, Palm Bay) was sentenced to six years in federal prison for distributing fentanyl and possessing with the intent to distribute 40 grams or more of fentanyl. A federal jury had found Spady guilty on October 21, 2021. According to evidence presented during...

ORLANDO, Fla . –Bolivar Anibal Cordova, Jr. (42, Windermere) and Luis Manuel Cordero (40, Orlando) were sentenced to 12 years and 7 months and 8 years and 6 months in federal prison, respectively, for their roles in a conspiracy to distribute fentanyl-laced heroin. Cordova and Cordero had pleaded guilty in...

TAMPA, Fla. – Oscar Marsiglia Barrios (54, Colombia) pleaded guilty today to conspiracy to distribute cocaine knowing and intending it to be imported into the United States (U.S.). Marsiglia Barrios faces a maximum penalty of life in federal prison. A sentencing date has not yet been set. According to court...

TAMPA , Fla . –United States Attorney Roger B. Handberg announced the unsealing of an indictment charging Jovante Raschod Thomas, a/k/a “Wood,” a/k/a “Tae” (40, Pinellas Park), Troy Lydell Mctier Jr. (29, St. Petersburg), Adrian Fulton Ashby, (50, St. Petersburg) Marquesha Dequaila Leseon Isaac a/k/a “Auntie,” a/k/a “Angie” (36, St...

TAMPA, Fla. – Gerardo Gomez-Lubo, a/k/a Francisco Niño (42, Colombia), has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute cocaine knowing and intending it to be imported into the United States. Gomez-Lubo faces a maximum penalty of life in federal prison. A sentencing date has not yet been set. According to the...