DEA Archived Press Releases

Press Releases before January 20, 2025
540 Results - Showing 221 to 230
PRESS RELEASE

Former Mexican Police Officer Charged with Trafficking Enough Fentanyl to Kill 10 Million

A federal grand jury in Amarillo, Texas has indicted a former Mexican municipal police officer for fentanyl trafficking, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Erin Nealy Cox. In a superseding indictment filed Thursday evening, Assmir Contreras-Martinez, 30, of Tucson, Arizona, was charged with conspiracy and possession with...
PRESS RELEASE

Chula Vista man sentenced to 10 years for being source of fentanyl that resulted in non-fatal overdoses in Alpine

SAN DIEGO – A Chula Vista man was sentenced today in federal court to 10 years in prison for distributing fentanyl that led to the non-fatal overdoses of five people in Alpine, some of whom were revived by first responders with naloxone. In sentencing Joel Rodriguez of Chula Vista, U.S...
PRESS RELEASE

Trafficker admits smuggling large quantities of deadly fentanyl, methamphetamine and cocaine, including more than 450,000 fentanyl pills

SAN DIEGO – April Spring Kelly admitted in federal court today that she smuggled more than 450,000 fentanyl pills from Mexico into the United States during a nine-month conspiracy from February to October of 2018. According to admissions in her plea agreement, Kelly smuggled the fentanyl pills through ports of...
PRESS RELEASE

Top Dealer in Han Gil Case Pleads Guilty

DALLAS - The lead defendant in the Han Gil criminal case pleaded guilty today to gun and drug charges, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Erin Nealy Cox. Eric Dewayne Freeman, aka “Stuff,” pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute a Schedule I...
PRESS RELEASE

Suspected high-level Guatemalan drug trafficker arraigned in San Diego on charges he moved large quantities of cocaine on the high seas

SAN DIEGO – Willian Estuardo Lemus Lara, a suspected high-level cartel boss from Central America, was arraigned in federal court today on maritime cocaine trafficking charges. According to the documents filed in court, Lemus was the manager of the transportation and distribution cell responsible for facilitating multi-ton quantity cocaine loads...
PRESS RELEASE

Grand jury charges Ponca City pair in steroid conspiracy

OKLAHOMA CITY – A federal grand jury has returned an indictment charging Patrick Lee Amadore Travis, 25, and Miranda Nichole Rhynard, 26, both of Ponca City, with illegal distribution of steroids, announced United States Attorney Timothy J. Downing. According to the indictment, Travis and Rhynard conspired to distribute anabolic steroids...
PRESS RELEASE

13 arrested in Colombia for distributing thousands of kilograms of cocaine to the U.S.

SHERMAN, Texas - Special Agent in Charge Clyde E. Shelley, Jr. of the United States Drug Enforcement Administration’s Dallas Field Division and U.S. Attorney Joseph D. Brown announced today that 13 individuals have been arrested in the Republic of Colombia and will be extradited to the United States to face...
PRESS RELEASE

Sixth hash oil lab dismantled by DEA within three week period

LEMON GROVE, Calif. – Yesterday the United States Drug Enforcement Administration executed a federal search warrant at a warehouse located at 7648 Lemon Avenue, Lemon Grove, Calif., and uncovered a sophisticated hash oil refinery laboratory operation. Large quantities of ethanol were removed from the property by San Diego County HAZMAT...
PRESS RELEASE

Major takedown dismantles multi-state methamphetamine network tied to Sinaloa cartel

SAN DIEGO – Indictments were unsealed today in San Diego federal court charging 43 members of a methamphetamine distribution network tied to the Sinaloa Cartel with federal drug trafficking and money laundering offenses. During the coordinated takedown that began early this morning, agents executed over a dozen search warrants. Agents...
PRESS RELEASE

Second hash oil extraction laboratory explosion in San Diego County within two week period

EL CAJON, Calif. – Yesterday, DEA’s Narcotic Task Force (NTF) responded to a hash oil extraction laboratory explosion in the city of El Cajon. This explosion occurred less than two weeks after the significant hash oil extraction laboratory explosion in the Mira Mesa area of San Diego, which sent three...