United States Drug Enforcement Administration

Fort Worth, TX - Thirty members of an alleged methamphetamine distribution ring have been charged with drug crimes, announced Special Agent in Charge Eduardo A. Chavez of the DEA Dallas Field Division. Following a painstaking investigation led by DEA Dallas’s High Intensity Drug Trafficking Group, 21 of the 30 defendants...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Kristopher Wade Parker, 36, of Carlsbad, New Mexico, was sentenced on Oct. 14 in federal court to five-and-a-half years in prison for possession with intent to distribute fentanyl and possession of a firearm in the furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. Parker pleaded guilty on Oct. 25...

LUBBOCK, TX - Nine individuals in Lubbock have been charged with conspiracy to distribute cocaine and other related drug crimes, announced by DEA Dallas Field Division Special Agent in Charge Eduardo A. Chavez, who oversees DEA operations throughout the region. Nine members of a Lubbock drug trafficking organization were arrested...

Lubbock, TX - Two Texas Syndicate members, a prison gang, were sentenced today to a combined 50 years in prison for drug trafficking in Lubbock, announced by DEA Dallas Field Division Special Agent in Charge Eduardo A. Chavez. Jose Daniel Flores, aka “Cuate,” 43, was sentenced to 360 months in...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Toby Randall Walker, 36, appeared in federal court in Albuquerque on Oct. 1 on multiple drug and firearm charges brought under the Department of Justice’s Operation LeGend. According to a criminal complaint, on Sept. 29, agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration encountered Walker and located 1,490 grams...

FORT WORTH, TX - Forty-nine defendants, including two doctors and five pharmacists, have been charged with participating in an $18 million pill mill scheme, announced by the DEA Dallas Field Division. “Medical professionals hold the public’s trust to provide what is in the best interests of their patients,” said DEA...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Jerry Twaddle, 40, of Carlsbad, New Mexico, was sentenced on Sept. 9 in federal court to 20 years in prison on drug trafficking charges. On Feb. 6, 2019, a jury found Twaddle guilty on charges of conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance, using a communication facility (telephone)...

WASHINGTON – Today, Attorney General William P. Barr and Drug Enforcement Administration Acting Administrator Timothy J. Shea announced the results of Operation Crystal Shield, DEA’s six-month-long effort targeting the command and control elements of Mexican cartels that operate major methamphetamine “transportation hubs” in the United States. At a press conference...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – A federal judge sentenced Chase Smothermon, 32, of Albuquerque, New Mexico, to 45 years in prison for abducting and assaulting two men, one of whom was tortured, killed, and mutilated. Smothermon suspected the victims of stealing drugs and money from his home. On Jan. 24, Smothermon pleaded...

DALLAS - DEA announced that a four-person cabal has been charged with plotting to arrange a murder-for-hire on a DEA task force officer. A federal grand jury indicted Manual Garcia Gomez, 22, Jorge Humberto Velazco Larios, 27, Eva Denisse Gomez Garcia, 38, and Alicia Yuritzi Juarez Martinez, 31, for conspiracy...