SEATTLE - Fifteen people were arrested today throughout the Puget Sound region and in California following an 18-month investigation of a drug trafficking organization tied to the CJNG cartel in Mexico. Defendants arrested today made their initial appearance in U.S. District Court in Seattle. The South Sound Streets are safer...

COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho - Larry Junior Hillbroom, 36, Morgan Kenney, 34, and Sean RoberWathen, 48, all of Hope, Idaho, were arrested on July 15, 2020, on federal charges of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, U.S. Attorney Bart M. Davis announced today. The charge stem from a June 16, 2020 indictment filed...

SPOKANE, Wash. - Randall Curtis Gross, 27, of Grand Coulee, Washington, was sentenced on June 16, 2020, after having pleaded guilty on February 11, 2020, to conspiracy to distribute 500 grams or more of methamphetamine as well as heroin. Senior District Court Judge Wm. Fremming Nielsen sentenced Gross to a...

SEATTLE - Two Bellingham, Washington, residents made their initial appearance today in U.S. District Court in Seattle following their arrest on May 28, 2020, for distributing fake oxycodone tablets tainted with fentanyl. Troy J. Klander, 38, and Zachary D. Salas, 38, are charged with conspiracy to possess fentanyl with intent...

PORTLAND, Ore.—Omnicare Inc., a subsidiary of CVS Health and a provider of pharmacy services to long-term care facilities, has agreed to pay the United States a $15.3 million civil penalty to resolve allegations that it violated federal law by, among other things, allowing opioids and other controlled substances to be...

SAN DIEGO – Federal agents on the San Diego Tunnel Task Force uncovered a sophisticated drug smuggling tunnel on Thursday, March 19, which extends under the United States-Mexico border to a warehouse in a commercial complex in the Otay Mesa area of San Diego. The discovery of the tunnel resulted...

PORTLAND, Ore.—The leader of a Salem-area drug distribution network was sentenced on March 11, 2020, to federal prison for his role in a conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and cocaine in and around Salem, Oregon. Isaias Alvarado, 38, a Mexican citizen residing in Salem, was sentenced to 120 months in federal...

SEATTLE – A Bothell, Washington, man is charged in an eight-count complaint for operating an illegal money exchange business involving bitcoin. Kenneth Warren Rhule, 26, made his initial appearance on the criminal complaint in U.S. District Court in Seattle on March 10, 2020. Rhule is charged with conducting an unlicensed...

EL CENTRO, Calif. – The region’s highest-ranking law enforcement officials joined together today to issue a dire public safety alert about the extreme danger of fentanyl-laced pills following the fatal overdose of a 15-year-old boy, the youngest person known to have died as a result of fentanyl in Imperial County...

WASHINGTON – The Justice Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration today announced the results of Project Python, a DEA-led multilateral interagency operation encompassing all global investigations and related disruption activities targeting the Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG). This announcement marks the successful conclusion of six months of investigative and...