BUFFALO, N.Y. – Results of the first 60-days of the federal Violence Prevention and Elimination Response (VIPER) Initiative were announced today. VIPER sought to address the dramatic increase in gun violence in the City of Buffalo during the first half of 2021. The initial 60-day period of VIPER covered the...

BROOKLYN, NY - Earlier today, in federal court in Brooklyn, Gilberto Melgarejo pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute illegal drugs over the “dark web.” Co-defendant Brooke Gray pleaded guilty to the same charge on August 10, 2021. Melgarejo and Gray participated in dozens of...

NEW YORK – Special Agent in Charge Ray Donovan of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s New York Division and New York Attorney General Letitia James announced today the arrests of 12 individuals for their roles in a drug trafficking operation that transported cocaine from Puerto Rico to Buffalo and other...

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – A Springfield, Missouri, woman was sentenced in federal court today for her role in a conspiracy to distribute large amounts of methamphetamine. Cassidy R. Clayton, 25, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge M. Douglas Harpool to 15 years in federal prison without parole. On Oct. 31, 2019...

BUFFALO, N.Y. – U.S. Attorney James P. Kennedy, Jr. and U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent in Charge Ray Donovan, New York Division announced Robert Jones, 48, of Lockport, NY, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Lawrence J. Vilardo to possessing with intent to distribute cocaine. The charge carries carry...

ROCHESTER, N.Y. – U.S. Attorney James P. Kennedy, Jr. and U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent in Charge Ray Donovan, New York Division announced today that Brian Cintron, 37, and Edwin Junior Gallardo-Ortiz, 35, both of Rochester, NY, were arrested and charged by criminal complaint with conspiring and attempting to...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Two Columbia, Missouri, residents have pleaded guilty in federal court to methamphetamine trafficking after they received a large package of methamphetamine shipped from California to distribute locally. Bryan Patton Tullous, 39, pleaded guilty today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Willie J. Epps, Jr., to participating in a...

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – A Springfield, Missouri, man was sentenced in federal court today for his role in a conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and for illegally possessing a firearm. Maxwell L. Fleming, 25, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge M. Douglas Harpool to 15 years in federal prison without parole. On...

St. Louis, Mo. - Saint Francis Medical Center of Southeast Missouri has agreed to pay more than $1.6 million to settle a civil suit by the United States, resolving claims under the Controlled Substances Act. The U.S. government alleged that Saint Francis employed a Farmington, Missouri, physician, Brett Dickinson, who...

BROOKLYN, NY – An indictment was unsealed today in federal court in Central Islip charging Dr. Barry Arnold, a practicing dentist with an office in Valley Stream, New York, with writing illegal prescriptions to women for oxycodone, a Schedule II controlled substance, and alprazolam (“Xanax”), a Schedule IV controlled substance...