PHOENIX - The DEA is alerting all citizens to drug overdose deaths tied to counterfeit pills laced with powerful opioid fentanyl. Manufactured by Mexican drug trafficking (DTOs) and sold as oxycodone on the illicit drug market, fentanyl is an opioid 100 times stronger than morphine. These counterfeit pills are smuggled...

WESTON, Fla. - Hugo Margenat-Castro, 25, of Orlando, Florida, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute, 100 grams or more of heroin and distribution of fentanyl that resulted in the death of another. He faces a mandatory minimum term of 20 years and up to life, in...

WESTON, Fla. - Eric C. Falkowski, 35, from Orlando, Florida, was sentenced to 15 years and 8 months in federal prison for conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute, 40 grams or more of fentanyl and for being a felon in possession of a firearm. Falkowski previously pleaded guilty...

ORMAND BEACH, Florida - The Drug Enforcement (DEA) Central Florida Region Office arrested Howard Perch near his residence in Ormond Beach, Florida, on charges of obtaining controlled substances by fraud and providing false info to obtain them. Perch is the Executive Director of Florida Hospital Oceanside in Ormond Beach, Florida...

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - Three defendants were sentenced to federal prison last week for drug trafficking, announced Drug Enforcement (DEA) Assistant Special Agent in Charge Matthew Barden and Kenneth Elser, United States Attorney for the Western District of Arkansas. Santiago (aka Chuco), age 47, of Commerce, Oklahoma, was sentenced to 151...

MIAMI - There are just four days left to see the DEA traveling museum exhibit Drugs: Costs & Consequences - at the Museum of Science and Discovery in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. This exhibit offers both a visual and written outlook on the cost of drugs, drugs and the body, drugs...

PHOENIX - The DEA announced the recent discovery of three overdose deaths involving the synthetic opioid U-47700, commonly referred to as “Pink.” The toxicology and investigative reports documenting the fatalities were shared with agents and intelligence resources as part of ongoing efforts by DEA’s Heroin Enforcement Action (HEAT), an enforcement...

WESTON, Fla. - The indictment against Guy Philippe - , 48, of Haiti, was unsealed this morning at the United (U.S.) District Court in the Southern District of Florida. Philippe was arrested on January 5, 2017 in Haiti by the Haitian National Police narcotic unit that works regularly with the...

MIAMI - A federal jury found Julian Villa-Gomez Lemus, 31, of Visalia, California, guilty of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances on the internet. In the past week, his co-defendants Fadhle Muqbel Saeed, 31, and Alfonso Bojorquez-Vazquez, 30, both of Porterville, California pleaded guilty to related charges of conspiracy to distribute...

MIAMI - Christopher Sharod Massena, 25, of Palm Beach County, was sentenced today to 30 years in prison followed by three years supervised release for the distribution of Fentanyl, resulting in the death of a 23 year old man. Massena was previously convicted for unlawfully distributing a controlled substance, Fentanyl...