SAN DIEGO -Josue Adan Lemus-Lara, aka “Fenix,” was sentenced in federal court today to 260 months in prison. His sentence follows his conviction after a week-long jury trial in November 2023 where he was convicted on all charges in a maritime cocaine trafficking conspiracy. During a multi-year wiretap investigation led...

SAN DIEG O - Wilder Emilio Sanchez Farfan, aka Gato, an Ecuadorian national and alleged drug trafficker, made his first appearance in federal court today following his extradition to the United States from Colombia yesterday. At the hearing, Sanchez Farfan entered a not guilty plea. U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara L...

NEWARK, NJ. – A New Jersey-based employee of an international financial institution was arrested today for accepting bribes to facilitate millions of dollars of money laundering, Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration's (DEA) New Jersey Field Division Cheryl Ortiz U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger announced. Oscar Marcelo...

NEWARK, N.J. – A Colombian citizen admitted conspiring to import hundreds of kilograms of cocaine into the United States from other countries including Colombia, Venezuela, and the Dominican Republic, Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) New Jersey Field Division Cheryl Ortiz and U.S. Attorney Philip R...

SAN DIEGO – Four sons of Joaquín Guzmán Loera, the imprisoned former Sinaloa Cartel leader known as El Chapo, were indicted by a federal grand jury for large-scale drug trafficking, money laundering and violent crimes in connection with their assumption of cartel leadership following their father’s arrest and extradition to...

NEWARK, N.J. – Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s New Jersey Division Susan A. Gibson and U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey Philip R. Sellinger announced a Puerto Rican man was sentenced today to 120 months in prison for conspiring to distribute over 250 kilograms...

SAN DIEGO – A federal grand jury indictment was unsealed in San Diego today against Guatemalan national Axel Bladimir Montejo Saenz, aka “Mosh,” aka “Kraken.” The indictment returned on November 1, 2018, charges Montejo Saenz with Conspiracy to Distribute Cocaine Intended for Unlawful Importation and Conspiracy to Distribute Cocaine on...

NEWARK, N.J. – Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s New Jersey Division Susan A. Gibson and U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey Philip R. Sellinger announced a United States citizen who had been residing in the Dominican Republic was sentenced today to 178 months in...

SAN DIEGO – Suspected drug trafficker Rafael Orlando Ramirez Barillas, a Guatemalan national who was extradited to the United States from Guatemala on Thursday, February 10, 2022 to face international cocaine trafficking and maritime smuggling charges in the Southern District of California, appeared in federal court today and was ordered...

NEWARK, N.J. – Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s New Jersey Division Susan A. Gibson and U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey Philip R. Sellinger announced a Passaic County, New Jersey, man today admitted his role in an illegal money transmitting business. Julio De La...