DEA Archived Press Releases

Press Releases before January 20, 2025
388 Results - Showing 181 to 190
PRESS RELEASE

Massive takedown targets East County drug trafficking networks

SAN DIEGO – Eight indictments were unsealed today in San Diego federal court charging 85 members of drug distribution networks linked to the Sinaloa Cartel, with federal drug trafficking, money laundering and firearms offenses. During the coordinated takedown that began early this morning, investigators executed over a dozen search warrants...
PRESS RELEASE

Drug dealer pleads guilty in fentanyl overdose death

SAN DIEGO – Uriah Odish pleaded guilty in federal court today, admitting that he supplied fentanyl that led to the fatal overdose of 25-year-old Tiffany Hansen, of La Mesa, on Jan. 23, 2018. According to his plea agreement, Odish sold more than 500 grams of what he knew to be...
PRESS RELEASE

Dealer admits selling deadly fentanyl laced pills

SAN DIEGO – Christopher James Stracuzzi entered a guilty plea in federal court today, admitting that he distributed fentanyl that resulted in the death of a San Diego man. Stracuzzi is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 2, 2019, at 9 a.m. before U.S. District Judge Thomas J. Whelan. According...
PRESS RELEASE

Three men sentenced for attempting to smuggle $28 million of cocaine on the high seas

SAN DIEGO – Three South American cocaine traffickers were sentenced in federal court this week after being convicted of transporting approximately 1,230 kilograms (2,706 pounds) of cocaine—worth more than $28 million USD—on the high seas. The sentencing hearings followed a week-long trial in April in which a federal jury convicted...
PRESS RELEASE

Teen who recruited juveniles to smuggle drugs sentenced to 46 months in custody

SAN DIEGO -- Phillip Junior Webb, 20, was sentenced by District Court Judge Michael M. Anello in federal court today to 46 months in custody for conspiring to distribute controlled substances and smuggle undocumented individuals, including a Mexican national and Chinese national, for financial gain. According to the public record...
PRESS RELEASE

Jury convicts three men of trafficking nearly $17 million of cocaine

SAN DIEGO – Yesterday afternoon a federal jury convicted three defendants on charges stemming from their efforts to traffic approximately 734 kilograms (1,614 pounds) of cocaine -- worth nearly $17 million -- on the high seas. The verdict was rendered after a 10-day trial in the United States District Court...
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

Federal conviction and sentence imposed for repeat drug trafficking offender Lisa Marie Brown

CHEYENNE, Wyo. – On July 17, 2019, District of Wyoming Chief Federal District Court Judge Scott W. Skavdahl sentenced Lisa Marie Brown, 50, of Rio Linda, Calif., to seventy-eight months in federal prison for distribution of methamphetamine. Brown pleaded guilty to one count of distribution of methamphetamine on May 8...
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

Large-scale poly drug trafficking organization dismantled in Colorado

DENVER – In December of 2018, the Longmont Department of Public Safety Special Enforcement Unit began looking into the drug distribution activities of Joshua Ward, who resided in the city of Longmont. Utilizing various law enforcement investigative techniques, Longmont SEU identified numerous subjects in the northern Colorado region who were...