SANTA ANA, Calif. - A Santa Barbara-area physician who wrote numerous prescriptions for powerful painkillers for “patients” - many of whom were drug addicts, and some of whom died from drug overdose - was convicted today of 79 federal drug trafficking charges. Julio Gabriel Diaz, 67, a Goleta resident who...

MINNEAPOLIS - More than 1,000 law enforcement, public health officials, health care professionals, attorneys, drug court representatives, medical students, state, tribal and local government staff, community leaders, recovering addicts and their families from across Minnesota are meeting to address the pain pill problem. The Pain.Pill.Problem. conference brings together experts from...

HARTFORD, Conn. - Michael J. Ferguson Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration for New England and Deirdre M. Daly, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that two men involved in gang-related narcotics trafficking in Hartford were sentenced yesterday by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Alker...

GAINESVILLE, Ga. - Lanier Treatment Center, Inc., a narcotic treatment program, located in Gainesville, Georgia, has agreed to pay a civil settlement of $20,000 to resolve allegations that it violated the recordkeeping requirements of the Controlled Substances Act. Lanier Treatment Center, Inc. also has agreed to additional oversight from the...

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - U.S. Attorney Patrick Miles announced today that Joseph Jackson, aka “Jo Jo,” the lead defendant of a nine defendant heroin distribution conspiracy centered in Benton Harbor, Michigan, was sentenced to 17 years in prison. All nine defendants have been charged, convicted and sentenced in the Federal...

Prosecutions represent one of the most significant investigations to date in the US regarding synthetic cannabinoid trafficking, resulting in more than 220 Spice-related ER visits in Colorado in the Fall of 2013 DENVER - U.S. District Court Judge Philip A. Brimmer sentenced John Bowen, age 68, of Las Vegas to...

MIAMI - Four Tampa residents plead guilty to their involvement in a conspiracy to import a synthetic cannabinoid, XLR-11, a/k/a “Spice,” and paraphernalia to the United (U.S.) from China, before U.S. Chief Magistrate Judge Frank J. Lynch, Jr., in Ft. Pierce, Florida. A.D. Wright, Special Agent in Charge, Drug Enforcement...

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas - The last man involved in a massive marijuana distribution organization has been sentenced to federal prison, announced Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent in Charge Joseph M. Arabit, Houston Division and U.S. Attorney Kenneth Magidson. Ricardo Jason Villeza, 41, is the last of eight defendants sentenced for...

SAN DIEGO - Evelio Padilla-Zepeda, a Honduran national, pleaded guilty in federal court today, admitting that he donned a wetsuit and scuba gear and smuggled 55 pounds of cocaine through an underwater drug tunnel that exited into the All-American Canal just north of the international border. Padilla-Zepeda entered his plea...

BATON ROUGE, La. - Drug Enforcement (DEA) Assistant Special Agent in Charge Joseph Shepherd and United States Attorney Walt Green announced that United States District Court Judge sentenced Jeffery D. Perry, age 32, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, yesterday to serve life imprisonment, followed by a prison term of 15 years...