United States Drug Enforcement Administration

SAN DIEGO – Michael Steen pleaded guilty in federal court today, admitting that he supplied fentanyl that led to the fatal overdose of a 33-year-old Ramona, California woman on July 9, 2018. According to his plea agreement, Steen sold more than 500 grams of what he knew to be fentanyl...

SAN DIEGO – The Drug Enforcement Administration San Diego Field Division urges practitioners and members of the public to be cautious of telephone calls from criminals posing as DEA employees threatening arrest and prosecution for supposed violations of federal drug laws or involvement in drug-trafficking activities. DEA continues to receive...

SAN DIEGO – The Drug Enforcement Administration San Diego Field Division is announcing the RxAbuse Tip Line for the public to report suspicious, fraudulent, and illegal pharmaceutical activities. Tips can include information about doctors or pharmacists who are illegally dispensing medications, as well as information about people who are doctor...

WASHINGTON – Drug Enforcement Administration Acting Administrator Uttam Dhillon today announced that the DEA will direct enforcement resources to methamphetamine “transportation hubs” — areas where methamphetamine is often trafficked in bulk and then distributed across the country. While continuing to focus on stopping drugs being smuggled across the border, DEA’s...

SAN DIEGO – DEA Acting Administrator Uttam Dhillon today announced the publication of the 2019 National Drug Threat Assessment, which outlines the threats posed to the United States by domestic and international drug trafficking and the abuse of illicit drugs. “This year’s report illustrates a shifting drug landscape in the...

SAN DIEGO – After a challenging multi-year, inter-agency investigation, utilizing technology capabilities, intelligence gathering, and community outreach, law enforcement partners on the San Diego Tunnel Task Force have exposed the longest illicit cross-border tunnel ever discovered along the Southwest border. The tunnel originates in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico in an...

SAN DIEGO – Egisto Salerno, a medical doctor practicing in San Diego, pleaded guilty to opioid distribution in federal court today, admitting that he signed bogus prescriptions for multiple deceased or incarcerated patients. According to his plea agreement, Salerno, 75, illegally distributed 78,544 hydrocodone pills. Hydrocodone is an opioid pain...

SAN DIEGO – April Spring Kelly, of San Diego, was sentenced in federal court on Friday to 14 years in prison for conspiring to smuggle more than 450,000 fentanyl pills from Mexico into the United States during a nine-month period ending in October 2018. According to admissions in her plea...

SAN DIEGO – Orlando Balderas Guerrero, of Menifee, Calif., was sentenced in federal court today to 10 years in custody for participating in a conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine. According to his plea agreement, Guerrero admitted that for a one-year period, he obtained bulk methamphetamine from a broker in Mexico and...

PHILADELPHIA -- Special Agent in Charge Jonathan A. Wilson of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Philadelphia Field Division announced today that 40,798.33 pounds of prescription drugs were collected across Pennsylvania and Delaware by the DEA and its partners during the Prescription Drug Take-Back Day event on October 26, 2019. A specific...