United States Drug Enforcement Administration

PHOENIX - The DEA announces the conviction of Thomas Mario Costanzo, a.k.a. Morpheus Titania, of Mesa, Arizona, by a federal jury on March 28, 2018, on five counts of money laundering in Phoenix. This long term investigation resulted in one of the first convictions of a money launderer in Arizona...

LAS CRUCES, N.M. - Leon Conaway, 56, of Carlsbad, N.M., pleaded guilty today in federal court in Las Cruces, N.M., to charges arising out of the sale and offering for sale of drug paraphernalia. Conaway’s plea agreement recommends a sentence of three years of probation. Conaway, the owner and operator...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - U.S. Attorney John C. Anderson, Special Agent in Charge Terry Wade of the FBI’s Albuquerque Division and Chief James Gimler of the Hatch Police Department announced that Jesse Denver Hanes, who shot and killed Hatch Police Officer Jose Chavez on Aug. 12, 2016, was sentenced today to...

LAS CRUCES, N.M. - Esmeralda Dominguez, 33, of Glendale, Ariz., pleaded guilty today in federal court in Las Cruces, N.M., to methamphetamine trafficking charges. Dominguez and co-defendant Frank Lara, 45, of Albuquerque, N.M., were charged by criminal complaint in July 2017, with methamphetamine trafficking offenses. According to the complaint, Dominguez...

LAS CRUCES, N.M. - Jeremy W. Gough, 41, of Hobbs, N.M., was sentenced today in federal court in Las Cruces, N.M., to 120 months in prison followed by five years of supervised release for his methamphetamine trafficking conviction. Gough and seven other residents of Lea County, N.M., including four Mexican...

LAS CRUCES, N.M. - Candy May Gonzales, 33, of Canutillo, Texas pleaded guilty yesterday afternoon in federal court in Las Cruces, N.M., to cocaine trafficking charges arising from the seizure of 4.06 (8.95 pounds) of cocaine at the U.S. Border Patrol Checkpoint near Las Cruces. The DEA arrested Gonzales and...

DALLAS - Julio Cesar Torres, 52, of Greenville, Texas was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Sam A. Lindsay to 84 months in federal prison, following his guilty plea in September 2017 to one count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and to distribute a schedule II controlled...

PHOENIX - The DEA’s Phoenix Division has finished tallying the amount of drugs collected from those agencies who participated in the October 28th National Take Back event. Once again, Arizonans turned out in huge numbers and disposed of 11,668 pounds, nearly six tons, of prescription drugs. The total for the...

EL PASO - Americans nationwide did their part to reduce the opioid crisis by bringing the DEA and its more than 4,200 local and tribal law enforcement partners a record-setting 912,305 pounds-456 tons-of potentially dangerous expired, unused, and unwanted prescription drugs for disposal at more than 5,300 collection sites. That...

PHOENIX - DEA announced today the expansion of the its Heroin Enforcement Action (HEAT) initiative to Pinal County as part of a collaborative effort by the DEA Phoenix Field Division and the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office to address the opioid epidemic. Nearly 500 people in Arizona have lost their lives...