United States Drug Enforcement Administration

NORFOLK, Va. – Over 100 law enforcement agents, officers and other personnel executed Operation High Tide this week, resulting in a series of arrests of individuals allegedly involved in selling drugs and guns in Norfolk, Chesapeake and Portsmouth. Operation High Tide is a large-scale narcotics trafficking and firearms investigation that...

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is proposing to reduce the amount of five Schedule II opioid controlled substances that can be manufactured in the United States next year compared with 2019, per the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking being published in the Federal Register tomorrow and available for public...

HARRISONBURG, Va., – Iza Mar Rosario-Cruzado, 31, of Harrisonburg, Va., pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court to one count of distributing and possessing with the intent to distribute a mixture of heroin and fentanyl. Rosario-Cruzado further admitted her distribution of this drug mixture resulted in an overdose death. “This...

GREENBELT, Md. – Today, Jose Augustin Salmeron-Larios (a/k/a Joseph Morales-Martinez, Angel Salvador Gutierrez, Yankee, and Kean), age 26, of Severn, Md., was sentenced to 260 months in federal prison, followed by five years of supervised release, for a conspiracy to participate in a racketeering enterprise known as La Mara Salvatrucha...

GREENBELT, Md. – Gerdandino Delgado-Escobar, a/k/a “Pumba,” age 24, of Hyattsville, Md., a member of La Mara Salvatrucha (“MS-13”), sentenced to 51 months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for conspiracy to interfere with interstate commerce by extortion. The sentence was announced by Special Agent in...

BALTIMORE – On Sept. 5, 2019, Delroy Williams, Jr., 32, of Baltimore, Md., was sentenced to 135 months in federal prison, followed by five years of supervised release, for a conspiracy to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine, and for possession with intent to distribute cocaine and marijuana. The...

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Two Alexandria men, Jose Castro and Martin Vitela, were sentenced today to two and a half years in prison for distribution of heroin and pure methamphetamine. According to court documents, Jose Castro, 23, and Martin Vitela, 25, assisted co-conspirator Fabian Rodriguez Sandoval in the transportation and distribution...

GREENBELT, Md. – Today, Coron Demon Johnson, aka Savage, 25, of Baltimore, Md., was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for distribution of heroin. Johnson admitted that an individual died as a result of using heroin that he distributed. According to his...

WASHINGTON – The Drug Enforcement Administration today announced that it is moving forward to facilitate and expand scientific and medical research for marijuana in the United States. The DEA is providing notice of pending applications from entities applying to be registered to manufacture marijuana for researchers. DEA anticipates that registering...

WASHINGTON – The operator of a network of businesses in Lebanon and Africa, whom the United States Department of the Treasury designated as a financier of Lebanon-based terrorist group Hezbollah, was sentenced to five years in prison and ordered to forfeit $50 million by U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton...