SAN DIEGO – April Spring Kelly, of San Diego, was sentenced in federal court on Friday to 14 years in prison for conspiring to smuggle more than 450,000 fentanyl pills from Mexico into the United States during a nine-month period ending in October 2018. According to admissions in her plea...

PHOENIX - The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Phoenix Division and the Arizona Attorney General's Office announced the indictment of Rufina Lopez Covarruvia by a State Grand Jury for allegedly using her 13-year-old daughter to try and hide cocaine from officers during a traffic stop. Covarruvia is charged with multiple felony...

SAN DIEGO – Yesterday afternoon a federal jury convicted three defendants on charges stemming from their efforts to traffic approximately 734 kilograms (1,614 pounds) of cocaine -- worth nearly $17 million -- on the high seas. The verdict was rendered after a 10-day trial in the United States District Court...

DENVER – In December of 2018, the Longmont Department of Public Safety Special Enforcement Unit began looking into the drug distribution activities of Joshua Ward, who resided in the city of Longmont. Utilizing various law enforcement investigative techniques, Longmont SEU identified numerous subjects in the northern Colorado region who were...

SAN DIEGO – Willian Estuardo Lemus Lara, a suspected high-level cartel boss from Central America, was arraigned in federal court today on maritime cocaine trafficking charges. According to the documents filed in court, Lemus was the manager of the transportation and distribution cell responsible for facilitating multi-ton quantity cocaine loads...

DENVER - In February of 2017, the HIDTA Southern Colorado Drug Task-Force initiated an investigation titled Operation Double Dippin. The HIDTA Southern Colorado Task-Force is comprised of members from the Pueblo Police Department, Pueblo County Sheriff’s Office, El Paso County Sheriff’s Office, Colorado Springs Police Department, Teller County Sherriff’s Office...

DENVER – Jose Tapia-Rubio, age 60, of Aurora, Colorado, was sentenced yesterday by U.S. District Court Judge Raymond P. Moore to serve 96 months (8 years) in federal prison followed by five years on supervised release for conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute more than five kilograms...