United States Drug Enforcement Administration

ALBANY, Ga. – A Florida resident with multiple prior state felony convictions for distributing methamphetamine pleaded guilty to a federal controlled substance charge after being caught with approximately eight kilograms of the illegal drug during a routine traffic stop when his co-defendant attempted to escape from authorities with the bag...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – U.S. Attorney Dena J. King announced today that Jose Francisco Vasquez-Rico, 22, and Andrew Estiben Reyna-Rodriguez, 23, both of Charlotte, were sentenced to 168 months and 51 months in prison, respectively, for trafficking fentanyl and methamphetamine. U.S. District Judge Kenneth D. Bell also ordered the defendants to...

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- A member of a violent white supremacist street gang has been sentenced to more than a decade in federal prison after pleading guilty to trafficking methamphetamine. Donnie Lee Curtis Jr., 37, of Tunnel Hill, Ga., was sentenced to 144 months in prison after previously pleading guilty to...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Today, U.S. District Judge Kenneth D. Bell sentenced Ronald Keith Scronce, 65, of Lincolnton, N.C., to 168 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. According to filed documents and...

COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA — Ralph Allison Pitt, Jr., 46, of Columbia, was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to possessing with intent to distribute methamphetamine and possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. Evidence presented to the Court showed that, on December 6...

BRUNSWICK, GA – A newly unsealed federal indictment charges 14 defendants in a South Georgia drug trafficking conspiracy alleged to have been directed from inside a Georgia state prison. The indictment in Operation Pope’s G.O.A.L., an Organized Crime Drug Trafficking Task Force investigation, alleges the drug trafficking conspiracy distributed methamphetamine...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Jose Velasquez, 38, of Mexico, was sentenced yesterday to 151 months in prison and five years of supervised release for drug trafficking, money laundering, and illegal reentry, announced Dena J. King, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina. Robert J. Murphy, Special Agent in Charge...

NEW BERN, N.C. – Michael Hall, 34, of Duplin County, was sentenced to 180 months in prison for charges related to drug trafficking and firearms. Hall was convicted of the following charges: Conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and distribute 500 grams or more of a substance containing methamphetamine...

COLUMBIA, S.C. – Darryl Hemphill, 34, of Rock Hill, pled guilty in federal court to conspiracy to distribute controlled substances. Evidence presented at the change of plea hearing established that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Rock Hill Police Department began to investigate a group of defendants who were...

AUGUSTA, GA – Seven people have been indicted on charges related to a major methamphetamine-trafficking organization blamed for at least one overdose death. As described in the newly unsealed indictment in USA v. Wheatley et. al, the investigation in Operation Wheat Fields dates back to early 2018 and includes allegations...