United States Drug Enforcement Administration

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Department of the Treasury today named two Lebanese exchange houses, Kassem Rmeiti & Co. For (Rmeiti Exchange) and Halawi Exchange Co. (Halawi Exchange), as foreign financial institutions of primary money laundering concern under Section 311 of the USA PATRIOT (Section 311) - the first time the...

WASHINGTON - - DEA Administrator Michele M. Leonhart and Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced today the unsealing of charges against Antonio Indjai, the head of the Guinea-Bissau Armed Forces, for conspiring to provide aid to the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarios de (the...

RIVERSIDE, Calif. - A physician’s assistant who operated a mobile health clinic based in Hesperia was sentenced today to 14 years in federal prison for distributing the powerful and widely abused prescription narcotic OxyContin following an investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration. Christopher Henry Lister, 51, of Victorville, was sentenced...

WASHINGTON - Today the United States Drug Enforcement (DEA) published a Final Rule to permanently control 3,4-methylenedioxy-N-(methylone) and a Notice of Intent to temporarily schedule three synthetic cannabinoids. The first of two notices published in the Federal Register this morning is a Final Rule permanently placing methylone, a synthetic stimulant...

WASHINGTON, D.C. - DEA Administrator Michele M. Leonhart and U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara of the Southern District of New York announced that five defendants - Jose Americo Bubo Na Tchuto, the former head of the Guinea-Bissau navy; Manuel Mamadi Mane; Saliu Sisse; Papis Djeme; and Tchamy Yala - arrived in...

WASHINGTON - CVS Pharmacy, Inc., and Oklahoma CVS Pharmacy, L.L.C., (collectively “CVS”), have agreed to pay $11,000,000 to the United States to settle civil penalty claims for record-keeping violations under the Controlled Substances Act and related regulations, announced Administrator Michele M. Leonhart of the Drug Enforcement (DEA) and Sanford C...

SANTA ANA, Calif. - A San Clemente man pleaded guilty this morning to federal drug trafficking and tax offenses in relation to a string of nine illegal marijuana storefronts that generated millions of dollars in income. John Melvin Walker, also known as “Pops,” 56, of San Clemente, pleaded guilty to...

MARCH 20 - RIVERSIDE, Calif. - Federal and state authorities this morning arrested 10 defendants charged in a federal criminal complaint that accuses them of participating in a wide-ranging drug conspiracy that operated marijuana grow houses across Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino counties. As part of the investigation led...

LOS ANGELES - A member of the Mexican Mafia prison gang and longtime leader of the Puente-13 criminal street gang was sentenced on March 6, 2013, to life in federal prison after being convicted last year on federal racketeering charges that included a brutal stabbing designed to deter victims from...

LOS ANGELES - Two men, and the import-export company they allegedly used to move millions of dollars linked to illegal activity from the United States to Mexico, are scheduled to be arraigned this afternoon after being indicted on federal charges of operating an unlicensed money transmitting business and structuring cash...