SEATTLE - Today, the Drug Enforcement Administration issued a Public Safety Alert warning Americans of the alarming increase in the lethality and availability of fake prescription pills containing fentanyl and methamphetamine. DEA’s Public Safety Alert, the first in six years, seeks to raise public awareness of a significant nationwide surge...

POCATELLO, Idaho – Jesse Kirby, 45, Trevor Van Horn, 31, and Debra Trujillo, 63, all of Idaho Falls, were sentenced to federal prison for possession with the intent to distribute methamphetamine. Senior U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill sentenced Kirby to 110 months imprisonment, Van Horn to 100 months imprisonment...

COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho – Larry Junior Hillbroom, 37, of Hope, Idaho, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine on September 21, 2021. Chief Magistrate Judge Candy W. Dale took Hillbroom’s plea and set the case for sentencing on February 8, 2022. According to court records, in 2015 and 2016, Hillbroom...

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Miguel Baez Guevara, 38, a United States citizen living in Mexico, was indicted by a federal grand jury on 17 counts related to his leadership role in trafficking narcotics directly from Mexico to Alaska. Guevara was arrested by Mexican immigration authorities from the Instituto Nacional de Migración...

SEATTLE – Dr. Gerald Lee, a Seattle physician, has agreed to pay $150,000 to resolve allegations that he violated the Controlled Substances Act and False Claims Act. Specifically, the United States alleges that from January 2016 to September 2017, Dr. Lee violated the Controlled Substances Act by writing 23 prescriptions...

SPOKANE, Wash. - On September 2, 2021, Dr. Janet Sue Arnold, age 63, of Benton City, Washington, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute opioid pain medications (specifically, fentanyl, oxycodone, methadone, hydromorphone, methylphenidate, and amphetamine mixture) and other controlled substances (carisoprodol and alprazolam), without a...

Tacoma, Wash., - Two Tacoma residents were sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Tacoma to lengthy prison terms for gun and drug-distribution crimes. Tyson Lloyd, 33, was sentenced to 10 years in prison, and Cole Hornbeck, 25, was sentenced to 6 years in prison. Both defendants conspired to distribute...

SEATTLE - A 51-year-old Seattle man was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Seattle to 13 years in prison for drug and gun crimes. Clyde McKnight was convicted May 21, 2021, of possession of controlled substances with intent to distribute, and two counts of being a felon in possession...

FRESNO, Calif. — Jose Reyes-Pineda, 48, of Anaheim, pleaded guilty today to conspiring to distribute methamphetamine, Acting U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert announced. According to court documents, Reyes and co-defendants Genaro Serrato-Calles, 51, and Antonio Valencia-Hernandez, 65, both of Modesto, and Antonio Castellanos, 38, of Whittier, were charged with conspiring...

FRESNO, Calif. — Patrick Maldonado, 45, of Madera, and Elias Zambrano Jr., 41, of Fresno, have been sentenced to eight years in prison and two years and three months in prison, respectively, for an interstate drug conspiracy involving shipments of marijuana to the Midwest, Acting U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert...