DEA Archived Press Releases

Press Releases before January 20, 2025
388 Results - Showing 111 to 120
PRESS RELEASE

Federal Charges Filed Following Record-Breaking Drug Seizure

SAN DIEGO – Acting U.S. Attorney Randy Grossman announced federal drug charges today against Defendant Carlos Gerardo Symonds Saavedra following the seizure of more than 2,500 kilograms of methamphetamine and 50 kilograms of fentanyl found in a commercial trailer at the Otay Mesa, California Cargo Port of Entry (POE). The...
PRESS RELEASE

El Cajon Resident Pleads Guilty to Selling Counterfeit Pills Causing 19 Year Old's Death

SAN DIEGO – Olatunde James Temitope Akintonde of El Cajon, California pleaded guilty in federal court yesterday, admitting that he sold fentanyl-laced pills that caused the death of a nineteen-year-old Santee, California man, identified in court records as S.J.G., in March of 2019. According to his plea agreement, Akintonde admitted...
PRESS RELEASE

Sixty Defendants Charged in Nationwide Takedown of Sinaloa Cartel Methamphetamine Network

SAN DIEGO – An indictment was unsealed today in federal court charging 60 members of a San Diego-based international methamphetamine distribution network tied to the Sinaloa Cartel with drug trafficking, money laundering and firearms offenses. During the last month, hundreds of federal, state, and local law enforcement agents and officers...
PRESS RELEASE

Pacific Beach Resident Sentenced for Distributing Fentanyl that Caused Two Overdoses

SAN DIEGO – Pacific Beach resident Maya Kol was sentenced in federal court today to 15 years in prison for selling fentanyl powder that caused the death of one man and sent another to the hospital over Labor Day weekend in September 2018. Two other men—including the source of Kol’s...
PRESS RELEASE

Alleged CJNG Cartel Enforcers Charged with Drug Trafficking

SAN DIEGO – A superseding indictment and arrest warrants were unsealed in federal court against alleged Mexican drug cartel enforcement leaders in connection with their alleged violent support of heroin and methamphetamine trafficking. The superseding indictment, returned on March 6, 2020, plus a related indictment returned on March 16, 2021...
PRESS RELEASE

Third Defendant Sentenced to Almost 19 Years in Fentanyl Overdose Death of Longtime Rugby Player

SAN DIEGO – Andrew Samuel Daniel Gossai was sentenced in federal court today to 226 months in prison for supplying the fentanyl that led to the fatal overdose of 45-year old Derrick Hotchkiss, a longtime rugby player for the San Diego Old Aztecs Rugby Football Club. Gossai, the last of...
PRESS RELEASE

San Diego Man Pleads Guilty in Fentanyl Overdose Death

SAN DIEGO – Tony Davis pleaded guilty in federal court today, admitting that he supplied fentanyl that led to the fatal overdose of Jacqueline Galvan, a 41-year-old San Diego woman, on October 24, 2018. According to his plea agreement, Davis agreed to sell more than 100 grams of what he...
PRESS RELEASE

Alleged Drug Cartel Leader Charged

SAN DIEGO –A federal grand jury indictment was unsealed in San Diego today against alleged Mexican drug cartel leader Jesus Gonzalez Penuelas in connection with suspected heroin and fentanyl trafficking. Penuelas was also the target of sanctions imposed today by the U.S. Department of the Treasury. The indictment, returned on...
PRESS RELEASE

Department of Treasury Designates Sinaloa-based Mexican Narcotics Trafficker Under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Act

DENVER – The Denver Field Division of the Drug Enforcement Administration alongside the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado today announced that the Department of Treasury has designated Jesus Gonzalez Penuelas and the Gonzalez Penuelas Drug Trafficking Organization (DTO) as Significant Foreign Narcotics Traffickers. The designation is pursuant...
PRESS RELEASE

Sinaloa Cartel Leader Convicted

SAN DIEGO – Sinaloa Cartel leader Ismael Zambada-Imperial, aka “Mayito Gordo,” pleaded guilty in federal court today to drug trafficking charges following his extradition to the Southern District of California in December 2019. He also agreed to forfeit $5 million in drug trafficking proceeds. Zambada-Imperial pleaded guilty to all charges...