United States Drug Enforcement Administration

WASHINGTON - DEA Acting Administrator Chuck Rosenberg today announced results from the 2015 National Drug Threat (NDTA), which found that drug overdose deaths are the leading cause of injury death in the United States, ahead of deaths from motor vehicle accidents and firearms. In 2013, more than 46,000 people in...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Chief U.S. District Judge Frank D. Whitney sentenced Alberto Gasca, 31, of Los Angeles, California, to serve 128 months in prison and five years of supervised release on drug trafficking charges, announced Jill Westmoreland Rose, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina. Gasca pleaded guilty...

GREENEVILLE, Tenn. - Joshua Brandon Hinkle, 30, of Chuckey, Tenn., was sentenced on Oct. 20, 2015, by the Honorable R. Leon Jordan, U.S. District Court Judge, to serve 110 months in federal prison for his role in an extensive a-(alpha-pyrrolidinopentiophenone) distribution conspiracy centered in northeast Tennessee, southwest Virginia and western...

WASHINGTON - The Drug Enforcement (DEA), Immigration and Customs (ICE) Homeland Security (HSI), Customs and Border (CBP), along with other federal, state, and local law enforcement today concluded a 15-month, nationwide drug interdiction effort that resulted in 151 arrests in 16 states. The enforcement action, known as Project Synergy III...

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - Heather Morgan, 28, of Maryville, Tenn., was sentenced to serve 18 months in federal prison by the Honorable Thomas A. Varlan, Chief U.S. District Judge on Oct. 13. Upon her release from prison, Morgan will serve a two year period of supervised release. Morgan pleaded guilty to...

GREENEVILLE, Tenn. - Daniel Martinez, Jr., 39, of Morristown, Tenn., was sentenced to serve 15 years in federal prison by the Honorable R. Leon Jordan, U.S. District Judge. Upon his release from prison, Martinez will serve a 10 year period of supervised release. Martinez pleaded guilty to a federal grand...

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. - On Oct. 1, 2015, Faith Blake, 40, of Chattanooga, Tenn., was sentenced to serve 44 years in federal prison by the Honorable Curtis L. Collier, U.S. District Judge. Upon her release from prison, Blake will serve a three year period of supervised release. Additionally, she was ordered...

WASHINGTON - Thousands of Americans in communities across the country discarded more than 350 tons of unused, expired, or unwanted drugs as part of the Drug Enforcement Administration’(DEA) National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day (NTBI) on Saturday, September 26. This past weekend, more than 3,800 federal, state and local counterparts took...

ROME, Ga. - James Earl Chapman, Jr., a doctor from Macon, Georgia, has been convicted after a two-week jury trial on 49 counts of drug trafficking for prescribing and dispensing controlled narcotics at a Cartersville, Georgia, “pill mill” pain clinic that served as a front for the mass distribution of...

ATLANTA - Edgar Valdez-Villarreal, a.k.a. “La Barbie,” and Carlos Montemayor Gonzalez, who are charged in the Northern District of Georgia with importing drugs and money laundering, are among 13 defendants extradited from Mexico this afternoon to face pending charges in the United States. Valdez and Montemayor are alleged to be...