PHOENIX - As U.S. overdose deaths reach a devastating new height, claiming a new victim every five minutes, the Drug Enforcement Administration has revealed a direct link between fentanyl-related overdose deaths and criminal drug networks in Mexico. These groups are harnessing social media platforms to bring drugs laced with fentanyl...

PHOENIX - On December 9th, 2021, the DEA Phoenix Field Division Task Force and the Goodyear Police Department arrested Brian Meza-Raya, 18, of Phoenix, Arizona, who is facing multiple felony charges related to alleged drug distribution. Law enforcement served a search warrant on December 9th, at a residence in Phoenix...

EL CAJON, Calif. -- On December 2, the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Narcotic Task Force and El Cajon Police Department executed a state search warrant at a warehouse located at 1478 Fayette Street in El Cajon. Investigators uncovered an active and sophisticated hexane hash oil extraction laboratory operation. Additional DEA personnel...

SAN DIEGO – Ernesto Renteria of Chula Vista was sentenced in federal court today to 71 months in custody for distributing more than 100 pounds of deadly fentanyl plus fentanyl analogues, cocaine and methamphetamine. According to his plea agreement, in May 2021, Renteria stored large quantities of the federally controlled...

PHOENIX - On October 2, 2021, thirteen Yavapai County community members proudly graduated from the Phoenix Field Division's (PFD) first ever DEA Citizen's Academy. The community-based training program provided civilians from the local community with a first-hand understanding of the critical mission and work conducted every day by the men...

SAN DIEGO – El Cajon resident Olatunde James Temitope Akintonde was sentenced in federal court today to 15 years in prison for selling fentanyl-laced pills that caused the death of a 19-year-old Santee man, identified in court records as S.J.G., in March of 2019. Akintonde previously admitted that he sent...

SAN DIEGO – San Diego resident Brandon Jacob Shepherd was sentenced in federal court today to thirteen years and eleven months in prison for selling fentanyl that resulted in the death of an eighteen-year-old San Diego woman, identified in court records as P.E.R., in January of 2020. He received one...

SAN DIEGO – Tony Davis was sentenced today in federal court by U.S. District Judge Cathy Ann Bencivengo to 13 years in prison for supplying the heroin and fentanyl that led to the fatal overdose of a 41-year-old San Diego woman, on October 24, 2018. According to his plea agreement...

SAN DIEGO - Angel Dominguez Ramirez Jr. of Tamaulipas, Mexico, pleaded guilty in federal court today to drug and money laundering charges, admitting that he was the leader of a trafficking organization that transported ton-quantities of cocaine from South America to Mexico and into the United States. According to court...

PHOENIX – The DEA Phoenix Field Division, along with our law enforcement and community partners collected 9,032 pounds of unneeded prescription medications throughout the State of Arizona, as part of DEA’s on-going commitment to turn the tide against the U.S. opioid epidemic. Nationwide, close to 745,000 pounds of unneeded prescriptions...