United States Drug Enforcement Administration

WASHINGTON - - The United States Drug Enforcement (DEA) today announced the tragic loss of Special Agent James “Terry” Watson, who was murdered in what appears to have been a robbery attempt last night in Bogota, Colombia. At the time of his death, Special Agent Watson was assigned to the...

PASCO, Wash. - Early this morning, the Drug Enforcement (DEA) and the Tri-Cities Metro Drug Task (MDTF) executed three federal search warrants in Pasco, Washington. The enforcement action stems from a federal investigation targeting a methamphetamine drug trafficking organization. As a result, four people were taken into custody and will...

WASHINGTON - - The DEA today announced that the U.S. Department of the Treasury designated 18 individuals and 15 entities linked to Rafael Caro Quintero, a Mexican drug trafficker. Rafael Caro Quintero is a significant Mexican narcotics trafficker who began his criminal career in the late 1970s when he and...

BOISE, Idaho - Two brothers and former owners and operators of two Treasure Valley head shops, Smoke Shack and Smoke Shack Two were sentenced to federal prison on June 4, 2013, for offering drug paraphernalia for sale and one count of money laundering. Robert T. Guerrero, Jr., 36, of Meridian...

BOISE, Idaho - Alonso Martinez, 26, of Earlimart, California, was sentenced on June 4, 2013, to 60 months in prison for possession of 50 grams or more of actual methamphetamine with intent to deliver. Martinez, born in Mexico but a naturalized citizen of the United States, was also ordered to...

WASHINGTON - - Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Derek Maltz, the Special Operations Division Special Agent in Charge of the United States Drug Enforcement (DEA), today announced the unsealing of charges against Samuel Antonio Pinedo-Rueda, Solomon Adelaquaye, Frank Muodum, and Celestine...

SEATTLE - A former Amanda Park, Washington resident who operated a shingle mill as a cover for distributing methamphetamine was sentenced today to ten years in prison. Jose Naur Sanchez, 35, was arrested in June 2012, following a lengthy investigation led by the Drug Enforcement Administration. Sanchez pleaded guilty in...

MEDFORD, Ore. - Robert Hisamoto, 42, of Ashland, Oregon, was sentenced today to 48 months in federal prison for conspiracy to manufacture and distribute marijuana. Hisamoto is the owner and operator of Samurai Fighting Arts in Medford, Oregon. In August 2011, the investigation led by the U.S. Drug Enforcement (DEA)...

BOISE, Idaho - - Lena Kettle, 46, of Caldwell, Idaho, Heidi Aguila, 34, of Middleton, Idaho, and Kenneth Jones, 47, of Elverta, California, appeared in federal court on May 28, 2013, on an 89-count federal indictment charging them and 17 others with conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine; possession with intent to...

WASHINGTON - - DEA Administrator Michele M. Leonhart today announced that MANSSOR ARBABSIAR, a/k/a “Mansour Arbabsiar,” was sentenced today in Manhattan federal court to 25 years in prison for participating in a plot to murder the SaudiArabian Ambassador to the U.S., while the Ambassador was in the U.S. ARBABSIAR, a...