RALEIGH, N.C. – A former Fuquay-Varina nurse was sentenced today to 48 months in prison and three years of supervised release for tampering with painkillers intended for surgery patients. On March 9, 2022, Melissa Elizabeth Chacona pled guilty to the charges. “Surgical patients trust healthcare providers to give them the...

DALLAS, TX – A Denton physician has been sentenced to federal prison for drug trafficking violations announced Special Agent in Charge of the DEA Dallas Eduardo A. Chávez today. Stanley Charles Evans, 63, pleaded guilty on Sep. 12, 2022, to conspiracy to distribute and dispense controlled substances and health care...

BUFFALO, N.Y. - U.S. Attorney Trini E. Ross announced today that Orlando Albert-Arroyo, 28, of Buffalo, NY, who was convicted of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute, and to distribute, heroin, was sentenced to serve 144 months in prison by Chief U.S. District Judge Elizabeth A. Wolford. Assistant U.S...

MILWAUKEE - John J. McGarry, Assistant Special Agent in Charge of U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration-Milwaukee, and U.S. Attorney Gregory J. Haanstad for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, announced that on May 12, 2023, Michele Nickels. was sentenced to12 months and one day of imprisonment, to be followed by two years...

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Henry E. Autrey on Wednesday sentenced a man who provided the drugs that caused one fatal and two nonfatal overdoses in St. Charles, Missouri, to 35 years in prison. Ledra A. Craig, 46, of Wright City, Mo., was also ordered to pay $8,544 for...

FRESNO, Calif. — Sawtantra Chopra, 76, of Modesto, pleaded guilty Wednesday to three counts of illegally prescribing opioids and other medication, U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert and Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent in Charge Brian M. Clark announced. According to court documents, Chopra admitted prescribing drugs — including hydrocodone, alprazolam...

ST. LOUIS – A jury in U.S. District Court in St. Louis on Thursday found a convicted felon guilty of selling the heroin and fentanyl that killed a Florissant, Missouri, man in 2018. The jury found Wyland Kinney, 43, of St. Louis County, guilty of four felony counts: distribution of...

BUFFALO, NY - U.S. Attorney Trini E. Ross and Frank A. Tarentino III, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), New York Division announced that John Wallace Buchanan, 36, of Fredonia, NY, was arrested and charged by criminal complaint with distribution of fentanyl causing death, narcotics...

SAN DIEGO – Jonathan Miguel Lopez was sentenced in federal court to 120 months in prison for selling the fentanyl pills that resulted in the fatal overdose of 23-year-old Sherie Gil on September 30, 2021. Lopez pleaded guilty in October 2022. According to the government’s sentencing memo, on the morning...

ASHEVILLE, NC – Megan Emily Tate, 29, of Sylva, N.C., was sentenced today to 20 years in prison followed by five years of supervised release, for distributing a substance that contained fentanyl and caused two overdoses, announced Dena J. King, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina. Robert...