SAN DIEGO – The Drug Enforcement Administration is alerting the public of dangerous counterfeit pills killing Americans. Mexican drug cartels are manufacturing mass quantities of counterfeit prescription pills containing fentanyl, a dangerous synthetic opioid that is lethal in minute doses, for distribution throughout North America. Based on a sampling of...

SAN DIEGO – Americans nationwide have once again shown their strong support for DEA’s National Prescription Drug Take Back Day by dropping off nearly 883,000 pounds of medications during the October 2019 Take Back event. DEA, along with its law enforcement partners, has now collected nearly 12.7 million pounds of...

SAN DIEGO – On Saturday, October 26, DEA and its national, tribal and community partners will hold the 18th National Prescription Drug Take Back Day across the country. The service is free and anonymous. For the first time, DEA will accept vaping devices and cartridges at all National Prescription Drug...

SAN DIEGO – Pacific Beach resident Maya Kol pleaded guilty in federal court today, admitting that he sold fentanyl powder that caused the death of one man and sent another to the hospital over Labor Day weekend in September 2018. A third man - Kol’s source of the fentanyl -...

SEATTLE - Federal, state and local law enforcement fanned out across the Puget Sound region today arresting 17 people in connection with multiple counts of drug trafficking. The drug trafficking organization brought large loads of heroin and methamphetamine into the Seattle area. In one instance law enforcement seized 33 pounds...

SEATTLE – With robust public participation over the course of 17 prior events, the National Prescription Drug Take Back Day Initiative continues to remove ever-higher amounts of opioids and other medicines from the nation’s homes, where they are vulnerable to misuse, theft or abuse by family members and visitors, including...

POCATELLO, Idaho – Francis R. Casildo, 36, of Salt Lake City, Utah, was sentenced to 235 months in federal prison for possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine and conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute a controlled substance. U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill also sentenced Casildo to serve five...

SAN DIEGO – Drug dealer Trevon Antone Lucas was sentenced in federal court today to 15 years in prison for selling the counterfeit oxycodone pills laced with fentanyl that caused the overdose death of a La Jolla resident in June of 2018. Lucas, a resident of Highland, Calif., pleaded guilty...

SAN DIEGO – Dr. Roger A. Kasendorf, an osteopathic physician practicing in La Jolla, agreed to pay $125,000 to resolve allegations that he illegally prescribed opioids to his patients. The highly addictive and frequently abused opioids he prescribed included fentanyl, hydromorphone, oxymorphone, and oxycodone. In response to the Justice Department’s...

MEDFORD, Ore.—Five people were arrested on Oct. 9th, 2019, for their roles in a conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and heroin manufactured in Mexico in and around Klamath Falls, Oregon. Rogelio Gomez-Arias, 23, Irving Beas Ceballos, 34, Alexis Chavez-Franco, 22, and Domingo Matias-Hernandez, 36, are each charged by indictment with conspiring...