United States Drug Enforcement Administration

SAN DIEGO – DEA is holding its 19th National Prescription Drug Take Back Day on Saturday, Oct. 24 at locations across the country. The nationwide event aims to provide a safe, convenient, and responsible means of disposing prescription drugs, while also educating the general public about the potential for abuse...

SAN DIEGO – Christopher Glenn Emison of El Cajon was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Anthony J. Battaglia to 168 months in prison for distributing more than 40 grams of fentanyl - including the fentanyl that caused the death of 45-year old Derrick Hotchkiss. On April 11, 2019, Hotchkiss...

WASHINGTON – Drug Enforcement Administration Acting Administrator Timothy J. Shea today announced that the DEA will direct resources to help reduce violent crime in communities throughout the country. Under this initiative, called Project Safeguard, DEA will identify and prioritize ongoing drug trafficking investigations with a nexus to violent crime. “D...

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...

SAN DIEGO – U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers at the Otay Mesa commercial facility Friday seized more than 3,100 pounds of methamphetamine, fentanyl powder, fentanyl pills and heroin as part of the second largest methamphetamine bust along the southwest border in the history of the CBP, based on...

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...

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...

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...

SAN DIEGO – Federal District Court Judge Gonzalo P. Curiel today sentenced defendant Michael Steen to 148 months in prison for supplying the fentanyl that led to a 33-year-old Ramona woman’s fatal overdose on July 9, 2018. On March 4, 2020, Steen pleaded guilty to Conspiracy to Distribute Fentanyl, and...