CHICAGO - Twenty-three defendants are facing federal narcotics charges for their alleged roles in supplying and distributing wholesale quantities of heroin and cocaine in Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin, local and federal law enforcement officials announced today. An investigation led by the Chicago Police Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration resulted...

MADISON, Wis. - Jack Riley, Special Agent in Charge of the Chicago Field Division of the Drug Enforcement Administration and John W. Vaudreuil, United States Attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin, announced that Pedro Flores Cruz, 53, Huntington Park, Calif., was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge William Conley...

WASHINGTON - - The DEA today announced that the U.S. Department of the Treasury designated 18 individuals and 15 entities linked to Rafael Caro Quintero, a Mexican drug trafficker. Rafael Caro Quintero is a significant Mexican narcotics trafficker who began his criminal career in the late 1970s when he and...

MADISON, Wis. - Jack Riley, Special Agent in Charge of the Chicago Field Division and John W. Vaudreuil, United States Attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin announced that Mark Balcerowski, 54, Mayville, Wis., was sentenced today for his role in a long-term investigation into cocaine trafficking in Jefferson County...

WASHINGTON - - Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Derek Maltz, the Special Operations Division Special Agent in Charge of the United States Drug Enforcement (DEA), today announced the unsealing of charges against Samuel Antonio Pinedo-Rueda, Solomon Adelaquaye, Frank Muodum, and Celestine...

WASHINGTON - - DEA Administrator Michele M. Leonhart today announced that MANSSOR ARBABSIAR, a/k/a “Mansour Arbabsiar,” was sentenced today in Manhattan federal court to 25 years in prison for participating in a plot to murder the SaudiArabian Ambassador to the U.S., while the Ambassador was in the U.S. ARBABSIAR, a...

PRINCETON, Ill. - A grand jury has charged six Bureau County, Illinois, residents with participating in a conspiracy to manufacture methamphetamine over the past two years. Those charged are: Shane Walters, 27; Nicholas Hand, 29; Kyle Dye, 23; Jenna Regal, 23; Nikole Walters, 26; and Max Moritz, 32, all of...

WASHINGTON - DEA Administrator Michele M. Leonhart and other federal officials today announced the extradition of ALFONSO PORTILLO, the former President of Guatemala, who is charged with conspiring to launder millions of dollars he embezzled from the Government of Guatemala through bank accounts located in the United States. Portillo arrived...

WASHINGTON - DEA Administrator Michele M. Leonhart and Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, today announced that Richard Ammar Chichakli, an associate of the convicted international arms dealer Viktor Bout, was extradited from Australia on charges that he allegedly conspired with Bout and...

WASHINGTON - Today the United States Drug Enforcement (DEA) made the synthetic cannabinoids UR-144, XLR11, and AKB48 Schedule I, illegal drugs under the Controlled Substances (CSA) for the next two years. These cannabinoids areoften seen in so-called “fake pot” products that are falsely marketed and sold as “herbal incense” or...