SIOUX FALLS - United States Attorney Alison J. Ramsdell announced that a jury has convicted Christopher Spider, a/k/a “House”, age 45 of South Dakota and Lance Brunsting, age 56, of Colorado, of Conspiracy to Distribute a Controlled Substance following a four-day jury trial in federal district court in Sioux Falls...

SAN DIEGO – Marcus Ray Chavez was sentenced in federal court today to 262 months in prison for providing the fentanyl pills that resulted in the fatal overdose of a 15-year-old girl in 2022. According to court documents, on at least four occasions between September and November 2022, Chavez provided...

Acting United States Attorney Matthew R. Molsen announced that Michael Reis, 29, of Omaha, Nebraska, was sentenced on February 25, 2025, in federal court in Omaha, for distributing fentanyl that resulted in death and for sex trafficking of a minor. United States District Judge Brian C. Buescher sentenced Reis to...

SAN DIEGO – Edgar Perez Villa, an alleged member of a Tijuana-based enforcement group for the Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación, commonly known as CJNG, was extradited from Mexico to the United States on Thursday and made his first appearance in federal court in San Diego today. Perez Villa was...

SAN DIEGO – U.S. District Court Judge Todd Robinson sentenced Lucresia Stone-Rojas of San Diego today to 86 months in prison for being a felon in possession of a firearm on November 12, 2023, and possession with intent to distribute heroin on December 27, 2023. Stone-Rojas previously pleaded guilty in...

OMAHA, Neb. – In an effort to build on drug education messaging to tribal communities, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Omaha Division worked with the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska and Mandaree High School of North Dakota to develop a poster that blends Native Indian imagery with wording emphasizing the importance...

SAN DIEGO – Alleged Sinaloa Cartel cell leader Octavio Leal-Hernandez, aka Chapito Leal, who is believed responsible for trafficking large amounts of methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin and marijuana into the United States from Mexico, appeared in federal court today following his extradition from Mexico yesterday. Leal-Hernandez was indicted by a federal...

SAN DIEGO –Scott Anthony Sargent of San Diego pleaded guilty in federal court today, admitting that he supplied the fentanyl that caused the fatal overdoses of a 40-year-old woman and a 35-year-old man in North Park in 2022. San Diego Police officers, along with investigators from the Drug Enforcement Administration’s...

SAN DIEGO – Keith Octavio Rodriguez Padilla, a prolific firearms trafficker, was sentenced in federal court today to 19.5 years in custody for his role in supplying weapons and tens of thousands of rounds of ammunition to the Sinaloa Cartel. This case is part of a long-running investigation targeting the...

San Diego – Bryan Kim Bullard pleaded guilty in federal court today to distributing the fentanyl that resulted in the death of a 25-year-old Carlsbad woman. According to the plea agreement, on September 9, 2023, Bullard’s co-defendant, Cameron William Fulston, reached out to the victim, identified in court records as...