SEATTLE, Wash. – A U.S. citizen deeply enmeshed in an international drug smuggling conspiracy was sentence in U.S. District Court in Seattle to five years in prison. Just over a year ago, law enforcement teams from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Seattle Police Department and IRS Criminal Investigation executed 24...

McALLEN, Texas – A 40-year-old Mexican national illegally in the United States has been ordered to prison for possessing narcotics with the intent to distribute, announced Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Acting Special Agent in Charge William Kimbell of the Houston Division and U.S. Attorney Nicholas Ganjei. Miguel Angel Reyes-Sanchez pleaded...

FRESNO, Calif. — Jose Miguel Perez, 42, of Corona, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Kirk E. Sherriff to 11 years and three months in prison for possessing more than 5 kilograms of cocaine and more than 1 kilogram heroin with intent to distribute, Acting U.S. Attorney Michele Beckwith...

SEATTLE, Wash. – A 33-year-old citizen of Mexico, who was illegally residing in Kent, Washington, was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Seattle to 22 months in prison for conspiracy to distribute controlled substances. Martin Alonzo Peinado Torres said in court that he was lured to the U.S. by...

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – The final defendant in a Southeast Alaska drug trafficking conspiracy pleaded guilty today to conspiring to traffic drugs and launder money connected to a transnational drug trafficking enterprise. According to court documents, on Aug. 24, 2022, U.S. Postal Inspectors seized a suspicious package addressed to Patricia Seal-Uttke...

NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA – FULGENCIO CARDENAS-RIVERA (“CARDENAS-RIVERA”), age 35, a resident of Houston, Texas, pled guilty on April 15, 2025, before United States District Judge Brandon S. Long to possession, with intent to distribute, five hundred (500) grams or more of cocaine, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Michael M. Simpson. According...

NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA – SAUL MACEDO-RODRIGUEZ (“MACEDO-RODRIGUEZ”), age 38, a resident of Texas, was sentenced on April 30, 2025, after previously pleading guilty to conspiracy to distribute, and possess with intent to distribute, five kilograms or more of cocaine, and possession with intent to distribute five kilograms or more of...

CHICAGO — Sheila Lyons, Special Agent in Charge of U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Chicago Field Division, and Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph Boutros for the Northern District of Illinois announced that James Howard, 32, of Frankfort, Illinois, and Shantel Robinson, 31, of Oak Lawn, Illinois, were charged with drug conspiracy. Federal...

Spokane, Wash. – Jose Efrain Gonzalez-Rodriguez, age 24, of Mexico, who was unlawfully present in the United States, was sentenced after pleading guilty to drug trafficking and firearm charges. United States District Judge Thomas O. Rice imposed a sentence of 120 months in prison to be followed by 5 years...

BOSTON – A Colombian man has been sentenced in federal court in Boston for his involvement in a sophisticated international money laundering organization that laundered more than $6 million in drug trafficking proceeds from Colombian cartels through the United States, Caribbean and European banking systems. Jaime Humberto Mejia-Bencardino, 62, was...