SAN FRANCISCO - A federal magistrate judge has ordered that Defendant Milton Joel Varela Arteaga-a Honduran national who resides in Oakland, California, and was recently indicted by a federal grand jury for possessing large quantities of fentanyl on three separate occasions in 2023-be detained pending trial on fentanyl trafficking charges...

NEWARK, N.J. – A Bronx, New York, man today admitted distributing heroin and fentanyl into New Jersey from two drug mills in the Bronx, which resulted in the death of a 15-month-old child, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger announced. Jhan Carlos Capellan Maldonado, 35, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge...

MIAMI – A south Florida defendant pled guilty to participating in a conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute a synthetic opioid, protonitazene. Will Catis, Sr. (Catis), 42, of Deerfield Beach, pled guilty before U.S. District Judge Raag Singhal. According to the agreed upon factual proffer, on April 12, 2022...

Note: View the Superseding Indictment . ALBUQUERQUE – Towanda R. Thorne-James, Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration's El Paso Division and Alexander M.M. Uballez, United States Attorney for the District of New Mexico, announced the results of a law enforcement operation that resulted in fifteen defendants being...

Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced today that Francisco Javier Mecina Barrera, a/k/a “Angel,” was sentenced to 21 years in prison for MECINA’s leadership of a large-scale firearms trafficking and methamphetamine distribution and importation operation he called the “ Cartel de Houston”...

SPOKANE, Wash. - Vanessa R. Waldref, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Washington, announced that Jaime Alberto Garza, 52, of Othello, Washington, was sentenced after pleading guilty to Possession with Intent to Distribute 40 Grams or More of a Mixture or Substance Containing a Detectable Amount of Fentanyl...

Earlier today, at the federal courthouse in Brooklyn, a five-count indictment was unsealed charging Ariana Charles with conspiring to illegally traffic 18 firearms to Brooklyn. The defendant is charged under the gun trafficking provisions of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which Congress and the President enacted in June 2022. The...

BOISE, Idaho– Peter Timothy Eromenok, 34, of Idaho Falls, was sentenced to nearly 12 years in federal prison for possession with intent to distribute fentanyl and cocaine, U.S. Attorney Josh Hurwit announced today. According to court records, Eromenok was interviewed by investigators on May 9, 2022, about suspected fentanyl left...

PORTLAND, Ore.—The leader of a drug distribution organization responsible for trafficking large quantities of illegal drugs into the Portland Metropolitan Area for redistribution and sale was sentenced to federal prison today. Luis Angel Rivera-Huezo, 31, of Hillsboro, Oregon, was sentenced to 100 months in federal prison and five years’ supervised...

SEATTLE– A 33-year-old Seattle man was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Seattle to six years in prison for distributing fentanyl and illegally possessing firearms, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Tessa M. Gorman. Ahbdurman Ahmed was one of six people indicted in April 2023 for a conspiracy to distribute fentanyl...