Washington, D.C., – The DEA, along with its law enforcement partners, removed close to 745,000 pounds of unneeded prescriptions from medicine cabinets across the country this past Saturday, October 23rd, as part of DEA’s ongoing commitment to turn the tide against the U.S. opioid epidemic. Following last month’s 21st National...

EL PASO – A federal jury convicted two Sinaloa Cartel members on Friday for their roles in the Sinaloa Cartel’s narcotics distribution operations. According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Arturo Shows Urquidi, aka “Chous,” 50, of Juarez, Mexico and Mario Iglesias-Villegas, aka “Dos,” “El 2,” “Delta,” “Parka,”...

ABINGDON, Va. – A Greenville, South Carolina man, who formerly resided in Bristol, Virginia, pleaded guilty last week to distributing methamphetamine, international money laundering, possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, and conspiring to obstruct justice. According to court documents, Joshua Desorcy, 36, was directly responsible for...

DALLAS– The Drug Enforcement Administration will host its 21st National Prescription Drug Take Back Day on Saturday, October 23 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. This event offers free and anonymous disposal of unneeded medications at more than 4,000 local drop-off locations nationwide. According to a report published by the...

NORFOLK, Va. – A Portsmouth man, who was the 25th defendant associated with Operation High Tide, was sentenced today for his role in trafficking firearms and selling heroin. According to court documents, in 2017, Shon E. Melton, 32, of Portsmouth, was attributed with trafficking 19 firearms, including a concealable short...

CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. – Earlier today, in federal court in Central Islip, Tameshwar Ammar, a former medical doctor in Roslyn, New York, was sentenced by United States District Judge Denis R. Hurley to five years’ imprisonment for conspiring to illegally distribute oxycodone. In June 2020, Ammar relinquished his license to...

CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. - A federal jury in Central Islip returned a guilty verdict this afternoon against Frank Parasmo, a medical doctor with an office in Deer Park, on 31 counts of unlawfully distributing oxycodone, a highly addictive prescription painkiller, and one count of unlawfully distributing hydrocodone, all without a...

Greenbelt, Md., – Alicia Marie Walls, age 28, of Bowie, Maryland; and Andrew Joseph Trimmer, age 32, of Bowie, Maryland pleaded guilty on October 4, 2021, to conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute controlled substances and, possession with intent to distribute controlled substances. Trimmer also pled guilty...

ST. LOUIS – Olive Street Pharmacy, LLC, and pharmacy technician Irina Shlafshteyn, agreed to pay $1,507,808.50 to resolve a civil complaint bringing claims under the False Claims Act and Controlled Substances Act related to the unlawful dispensing of controlled substances, including some that were submitted to Medicaid or Medicare for...

KANSAS CITY, Kan. – A federal grand jury in Kansas City, Kansas, returned an indictment charging a nurse from Kansas City, Missouri, with two counts of tampering with a consumer product and two counts of possession of fentanyl by deception and subterfuge. According to court documents, between January 2020 and...