United States Drug Enforcement Administration

PHOENIX - DEA Special Agents and Tempe Police Narcotics Detectives working as part of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task (OCDETF) Strike Force, and in partnership with the Arizona Attorney General’s Office, recently completed a 30-month investigation resulting in the dismantling and ‘take down’ of an extensive drug trafficking network...

TUCSON, Ariz. - Joel Sesma-Garcia, 40, was sentenced on February 10, 2015, and Gerald Fidel Herrera, 41, was sentenced on Jan. 30, 2015, by U.S. District Judge Jennifer G. Zipps to 25 years and 15 years imprisonment, respectively, for their roles in a cocaine distribution ring that operated from 2008...

LOS ANGELES - Four individuals, including a former physician, were taken into custody on felony fraud charges in connection with a complex scheme investigated by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to print thousands of fake prescriptions bearing the names of legitimate doctors, ultimately sold on the streets of Los Angeles...

LOS ANGELES - After a federal grand jury issued a 33-count indictment last week, authorities in Texas and Southern California this morning arrested five defendants linked to a narcotics trafficking ring that sold illegal prescriptions for cash and obtained drugs that were shipped to Texas for sale on the black...

PHOENIX - Drug Enforcement (DEA) Special Agent in Charge Doug Coleman announced the conclusion of Operation Bad Mussels - with the sentencing of the remaining defendants indicted for their participation in one of the largest steroid enforcement investigations in Arizona. During the investigation, DEA’s Tactical Diversion (TDS) identified members who...

LOS ANGELES - A Los Angeles-area doctor who was convicted last summer of narcotics trafficking for illegally distributing the powerful painkiller best known by the brand names Vicodin and Norco was sentenced today to 63 months in federal prison. Dr. Andrew Sun, 79, of La Mirada, was sentenced January 5...

PHOENIX - On January 13, 2015 a special TV report on the growing perils of heroin and opioid use in Arizona will broadcast simultaneously and commercial-free on 32 TV Stations in Phoenix, Tucson and Yuma and most of the state’s radio stations. The air time will be 6:30 p.m. (MST)...

NEW YORK - Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, David Hubbert, the Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Civil Trial Matters in the Department of Justice’s Tax Division, John Koskinen, the Commissioner of the Internal Revenue (IRS), and Anthony D. Williams, the Special Agent...

HONOLULU - Kali Lotoaiki Laulea, 33, of Kailua-Kona, Hawai’i County, Hawaii, was sentenced to 155 months imprisonment for three counts of methamphetamine distribution. A federal jury found Laulea guilty of the three charges in August of this year after a five-day trial. Florence T. Nakakuni, United States Attorney for the...

PHOENIX - Following a coordinated federal, tribal and state task force investigation into drug trafficking on the Navajo Nation, 20 individuals have been charged with federal drug trafficking crimes. Five remain fugitives. In addition to the 15 arrested on drug trafficking charges, two individuals were arrested for alleged violations of...