United States Drug Enforcement Administration

EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. – After a week-long trial, a federal jury returned a guilty verdict convicting a California man of conspiracy to possess with intent to deliver controlled substances. Arturo Ledesma, Jr., 33, of Watsonville, Calif., was charged in a superseding indictment on Dec. 10, 2019, with supplying marijuana...

ST. LOUIS – An osteopathic physician from Collinsville, Illinois, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court Tuesday and admitted illegally prescribing an anti-anxiety drug. Matthew Steven Miller, 43, pleaded guilty to one count of obtaining a controlled substance by fraud and one count of making a false statement concerning a health...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – A Liberty, Mo., man was sentenced in federal court today for distributing fentanyl from his apartment near Liberty High School and for illegally possessing a firearm. Daniel I. Ramirez, 22, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Gary A. Fenner to 11 years in federal prison without...

BRUNSWICK, GA: Two men from Canada and the United Kingdom have been indicted in the Southern District of Georgia on federal charges alleging an international operation used the Dark Web to distribute illegal drugs in the United States, with some of those drugs resulting in the deaths of two U.S...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Two St. Joseph, Mo., men have pleaded guilty to their roles in a conspiracy to distribute heroin and to illegally possessing firearms. Franklin T. Hicks Jr., also known as “Frankie,” 41, pleaded guilty today before U.S. District Judge Greg Kays to participating in a conspiracy to...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Three defendants were indicted by a federal grand jury today for their roles in a conspiracy to distribute large amounts of methamphetamine in southwest Missouri after law enforcement officers seized approximately 29 pounds of methamphetamine. Brian E. Hall, 44, of Aurora, Mo., and Jacqueline Aldrete Bojorquez...

WICHITA, Kan. – A federal grand jury in Wichita returned an indictment May 20 charging Alberto Vasquez, 48, of Tucson, Ariz., with one count of possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance, fentanyl. Ever Quintana-Lopez, 31, of Wichita, was also charged with one count of possession of fentanyl with...

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – A Republic, Mo., man, who led law enforcement officers on a high-speed chase, was sentenced in federal court May 19 for possessing methamphetamine to distribute. Heath E. Yarger, 49, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge M. Douglas Harpool to 14 years in federal prison without parole. On...

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Court Judge Ronnie L. White sentenced a significant dealer of methamphetamine May 19 to nine years in prison. Anne R. Jekel, 42, of St. Louis County, was caught multiple times in possession of methamphetamine and guns. On Nov. 29, 2016, Maryland Heights police officers arrested...

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Court Judge Ronnie L. White sentenced on May 19 a drug dealer who mailed crystal methamphetamine to St. Louis from Arizona to seven and one-half years in prison. Hosea Simpson, 36, pleaded guilty in February to possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine. Beginning in 2019...