United States Drug Enforcement Administration

AUGUSTA, GA: The final defendant of four conspirators in an industrial-level pill-production operation is joining his mother and two other defendants in federal prison after all admitted participating in an operation that used pill presses to package and distribute methamphetamine. Albert Bynoe, a/k/a “Chino,” a/k/a “Bossman Chino,” 35, of Tucker...

ASHEVILLE, N.C. – A federal jury in Asheville has convicted Jorge Luis Perez, 36, of Wimauma, Florida, of drug trafficking and firearms offenses, announced Dena J. King, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina. U.S. District Judge Martin Reidinger presided over the three-day trial which ended today. According...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Jonathan Corey Daniel, 33, of Monroe, Georgia, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Kenneth D. Bell to 210 months in prison and five years of supervised release for trafficking methamphetamine, announced Dena J. King, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina. In July 2021...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – U.S. District Judge Robert J. Conrad Jr. sentenced Juan Octavio Iribe Laveaga, 35, of Norwalk, California, to 292 months in prison followed by five years of supervised release for trafficking large quantities of methamphetamine and fentanyl, announced Dena J. King, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Salvador Barrera, Jr., 27, and Ricardo Jonathan Gomez, 27, both of Charlotte, appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge David C. Keesler today and pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine, announced Dena J. King, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of...

ASHEVILLE, N.C. – U.S. District Judge Max Cogburn sentenced today Victoria Kerrigan Irby, 26, of Brevard, North Carolina, to 15 years in federal prison for trafficking narcotics, including fentanyl that resulted in an overdose death, announced Dena J. King, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina. Robert J...

ABINGDON, Va. – A former California man, who recently relocated to Meadowview, Virginia, was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison for his participation in a cross-country drug conspiracy that brought hundreds of pounds of crystal ice methamphetamine into the Southwest Virginia region. Guy Benjamin Bowman, 57, was convicted following...

AUGUSTA, GA: A Columbia County man has been sentenced to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to methamphetamine distribution. Bobby Lewis Sturkey, 51, of Harlem, Ga., was sentenced to 120 months in prison after previously pleading guilty to Possession with Intent to Distribute Methamphetamine, said David H. Estes, U.S...

STATESBORO, GA: A newly unsealed federal indictment charges nearly three dozen defendants for their involvement in a drug trafficking conspiracy centered in south Georgia and reaching into the Caribbean. The primary conspiracy charge in USA v. Morales-Jimenez et. al, dubbed Operation Carpet Ride, carries a statutory minimum penalty of 10...

AUGUSTA, GA: Ten people have been indicted in an Augusta-area drug trafficking conspiracy linked to another large-scale drug trafficking prosecution. As described in the newly unsealed indictment in USA v. Fields et. al, the investigation parallels the indictments in USA v. Wheatley et. al, together dubbed Operation Wheat Fields, and...