PHOENIX - The DEA announces the conviction of Thomas Mario Costanzo, a.k.a. Morpheus Titania, of Mesa, Arizona, by a federal jury on March 28, 2018, on five counts of money laundering in Phoenix. This long term investigation resulted in one of the first convictions of a money launderer in Arizona...

CHICAGO - The vast majority of heroin consumed in the United States is produced by powerful Mexico-based transnational criminal (TCOs), such as the Sinaloa Cartel and New Generation Jalisco (CJNG), and transported to the United States across the Southwest Border. These TCOs are extremely dangerous, violent, and will continue to...

CHICAGO - On December 2, 2017 Kane County Sheriff’s Department deputies were dispatched to 44W307 Plank Rd in unincorporated Burlington Township for a report of a subject who may have overdosed. The subject, later identified as William Barrett, was pronounced deceased at the scene. Toxicology reports indicate that he died...

AMARILLO, Texas - Arturo Salazar, Jr., 41, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Sidney A. Fitzwater to serve a total of 248 months in federal prison following his guilty plea in September 2017 to one count of possession with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of methamphetamine and...

PHOENIX - The DEA’s Phoenix Division has finished tallying the amount of drugs collected from those agencies who participated in the October 28th National Take Back event. Once again, Arizonans turned out in huge numbers and disposed of 11,668 pounds, nearly six tons, of prescription drugs. The total for the...

PHOENIX - DEA announced today the expansion of the its Heroin Enforcement Action (HEAT) initiative to Pinal County as part of a collaborative effort by the DEA Phoenix Field Division and the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office to address the opioid epidemic. Nearly 500 people in Arizona have lost their lives...

PHOENIX - On August 13, 2017, Drug Enforcement (DEA) Phoenix Field Division agents and Tempe Police Department detectives seized 30,000 fentanyl pills, during an enforcement operation against a Sinaloa Cartel-related drug trafficking organization. This is the largest seizure of fentanyl tablets in Arizona’s history. The pills were discovered after a...

TUCSON, Ariz. - The DEA announced today the sentencing of Gustavo Nunez to 38.25 years in prison for performing illegal cosmetic surgeries on seven victims, three of whom were hospitalized, one with life-threatening injuries. In April 2017, Nunez pleaded guilty to 28 felony charges after performing illegal liposuction procedures. “Gustavo...

PHOENIX, Ariz. - The Drug Enforcement (DEA) and Homeland Security (HSI) executed multiple search and arrest warrants today, closing two valley pharmacies and arresting a pharmacist as part of an ongoing OCDETF-designated investigation. On June 28, 2017, agents obtained an indictment from a federal grand jury charging pharmacist Vilawoe Aku...

PHOENIX, Ariz. - The DEA announced the sentencing of Dale Thomas Ratcliffe, a former Doctor of Osteopathy, to 5 years’ probation and the surrender of his medical license, after Ratcliffe was indicted on multiple federal charges earlier this year. Ratcliffe plead guilty to conspiracy to furnish false information after the...