SAN FRANCISCO – The Drug Enforcement Administration announced a new initiative, Operation Overdrive, aimed at combatting the rising rates of drug-related violent crime and overdose deaths plaguing American communities. Last fall, DEA initiated a data-driven approach using national crime statistics and CDC data to identify hot spots of drug-related violence...

ABINGDON, Va. – A Luray, Virginia woman, who was found to be in possession of twenty-nine pounds of methamphetamine, was sentenced today to 120 months in federal prison for possession and intent to distribute more than 500 grams of the drug. Danica Leigh Strate, 33, pleaded guilty in June 2021...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Dennis Dean Garcia, Jr., 34, of Grants, New Mexico, was arraigned in federal court on Feb. 2 on one count each of possession with intent to distribute 50 grams and more of methamphetamine and attempt to provide contraband in prison. Garcia was indicted by a federal grand...

ABINGDON, Va. – A Bristol, Virginia man, was sentenced on January 21, 2022 to nineteen years in federal prison for distributing more than 50 grams of methamphetamine and for using a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking offense. According to court documents, Robert Wayne Haislip, a.k.a. Roberto Fabian DeJesus...

Washington, D.C. -- Today, after significant arrests in the case, DEA Washington Division SAC Jarod Forget and D.C. Metropolitan Police (MPD) Chief Robert J. Contee III of the Metropolitan Police Department hosted a press conference on the recent string of fatal drug overdoses in the Nation’s Capital. SAC Jarod Forget...

Washington, D.C., - Jarod Forget, Special Agent in Charge of the DEA Washington Division, announced the issuance of an Immediate Suspension Order (ISO) at Northgate Pharmacy, located at 3973 Saint Charles Parkway, Waldorf, Maryland, today. This morning, members of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Washington Division’s Tactical Diversion Squad, along...

LYNCHBURG, Va. – A Madison Heights, Virginia man and former veterinarian pleaded guilty to a pair of misdemeanor drug charges related to his diversion of hydromorphone, an opioid drug also known under the trade name of “Dilaudid.” Patrick Gries, 54, pleaded guilty last week to one count of adulteration of...

Greenbelt, Md., – A federal criminal complaint was unsealed today charging six men for a drug trafficking conspiracy which allegedly distributed cocaine and other drugs in Montgomery and Prince George’s Counties as well as the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. The criminal complaint was filed on January 13, 2022. Charged in...

Greenbelt, Md., – Justina Aburime, age 53, of Bowie, Maryland, pleaded guilty today to one count of conspiracy to distribute and dispense oxycodone and one count of distribution and dispensing of oxycodone. The guilty plea was announced by Jarod Forget, Special Agent in Charge of the DEA Washington Division; United...

NEWARK, N.J. – Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s New Jersey Division Susan A. Gibson and U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey Philip R. Sellinger announced a Passaic County, New Jersey, man today admitted his role in an illegal money transmitting business. Julio De La...