United States Drug Enforcement Administration

Baltimore, Maryland – At a press conference earlier today, U.S. Attorney Erek L. Barron, thanked federal, state and local law enforcement partners in the fight against violent crime in Maryland. The teamwork, community-based partnerships, and strategic law enforcement initiatives helped make a difference in reducing homicides in Baltimore in 2023...

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – A federal grand jury in Charlottesville, Virginia has indicted 17 individuals as part of a large-scale drug conspiracy that distributed more than 500 grams of methamphetamine, fentanyl, heroin, and cocaine in and around the Charlottesville region. The 37-count indictment, returned under seal August 29, 2023, partially unsealed...

WASHINGTON – This morning, law enforcement agents from the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) arrested 12 alleged members of a violent drug trafficking organization (“DTO”), known...

Cedar Rapids - Cedar Rapids, Iowa, resident Brian Dennis was sentenced to more than 33 years in federal prison for leading a years-long conspiracy to distribute heroin and fentanyl. Dennis received the prison term after his June 27, 2022, guilty pleas to one count of conspiracy to distribute heroin, two...

Baltimore, Maryland – U.S. District Judge Stephanie A. Gallagher sentenced Eric Wilson, age 51, of Owings Mills, Maryland, yesterday to six years in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release, on drug conspiracy and distribution charges related to his supplying cocaine, crack cocaine and fentanyl to drug traffickers...

According to court documents, in March and April 2022, Calvin Ray Brown, 50, and a co-conspirator sold counterfeit pressed pills containing fentanyl to a Fairfax County Police Department confidential source and undercover detective on multiple occasions. When a search warrant was executed on Brown’s residence, officers recovered 999 counterfeit pressed...

RICHMOND, Va. – A Henrico County man was sentenced today to 110 months in prison for drug trafficking and possession of firearms in furtherance of drug trafficking. According to court documents, Anthony Sylvester Gaines, 42, rented an extended stay hotel room in Henrico County where he was storing and preparing...

Baltimore, Maryland – U.S. District Judge Julie R. Rubin today sentenced D’Andre Preston, age 26, of Baltimore, to 25 years in federal prison, followed by five years of supervised release, for participating in a violent racketeering conspiracy, specifically, the NFL Criminal Enterprise, including committing a murder. The term NFL stands...

Greenbelt, Maryland – U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis sentenced Brayan Contreras-Avalos, a/k/a “Anonimo,” “Humilde,” and “Malia,” age 28, of Langley Park, Maryland, late yesterday to the statutory maximum sentence of life in federal prison on charges related to his participation in a racketeering enterprise known as La Mara Salvatrucha, or...

ABINGDON, Va. – A Bristol, Virginia, man, was sentenced this week to 20 years in federal prison for possessing with the intent to distribute crystal ice methamphetamine and for illegal possession of a firearm. William Everett Himes, 38, was convicted after pleading guilty in June 2021 to one count of...