SAN DIEGO – Willian Estuardo Lemus Lara, a suspected high-level cartel boss from Central America, was arraigned in federal court today on maritime cocaine trafficking charges. According to the documents filed in court, Lemus was the manager of the transportation and distribution cell responsible for facilitating multi-ton quantity cocaine loads...

PORTLAND, Ore.—Osasuyi Kenneth Idumwonyi, 58, of Houston, Texas was sentenced on June 3, 2019, to 108 months in federal prison and three years’ supervised release for illegally distributing opioids. According to court documents, in January 2015, Idumwonyi along with codefendant and former nurse practitioner Julie Ann DeMille opened the Fusion...

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Two California men have been sentenced for their roles in a drug trafficking conspiracy to transport methamphetamine and heroin from the Lower 48 to Ketchikan for distribution. Arthur Castillo, 32, of Fresno, California, and Alfonso Francisco Sandoval, 32, of Clovis, California, were both sentenced in Juneau on...

PORTLAND, Ore.—Daniel Stewart Gregg, 67, of Ashland, Oregon, was sentenced on May 23, 2019, to 46 months in federal prison and two years’ supervised release for engaging in a conspiracy to traffic Oregon-grown marijuana across state lines. According to court documents, in 2015, Illinois law enforcement seized a 354 pound...

SPOKANE, Wash. – Rosalio Emmanuel Sanchez, age 33, of Pasco, Washington, was sentenced on May 29, 2019, after having been convicted after a 5-day jury trial in March 2019, of one count of conspiracy to distribute 500 grams or more of a mixture and substance containing a detectable amount of...

LEMON GROVE, Calif. – Yesterday the United States Drug Enforcement Administration executed a federal search warrant at a warehouse located at 7648 Lemon Avenue, Lemon Grove, Calif., and uncovered a sophisticated hash oil refinery laboratory operation. Large quantities of ethanol were removed from the property by San Diego County HAZMAT...

SAN DIEGO – Indictments were unsealed today in San Diego federal court charging 43 members of a methamphetamine distribution network tied to the Sinaloa Cartel with federal drug trafficking and money laundering offenses. During the coordinated takedown that began early this morning, agents executed over a dozen search warrants. Agents...

WARNER SPRINGS, Calif. – Yesterday the DEA’s Narcotic Task Force executed a state search warrant at 30570 Chihuahua Valley Road, Warner Springs, Calif. Agents uncovered a sophisticated butane hash oil extraction lab inside three trailers on the property. In addition to extracting hash oil, the lab operators were also refining...

EL CAJON, Calif. – Yesterday, DEA’s Narcotic Task Force (NTF) responded to a hash oil extraction laboratory explosion in the city of El Cajon. This explosion occurred less than two weeks after the significant hash oil extraction laboratory explosion in the Mira Mesa area of San Diego, which sent three...

SPOKANE, Wash. – Loren John Jay Meade, age 32, of Moses Lake, Washington, was sentenced today after having pleaded guilty on October 2, 2018, to conspiracy to distribute 50 or more grams of actual methamphetamine. Chief United States District Judge Thomas O. Rice sentenced Meade to a 12 year and...