United States Drug Enforcement Administration

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – A Texas man has been sentenced in federal court for his role in a conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and for illegally possessing firearms. Tanner Houghton, 41, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Roseann Ketchmark on June 14 to 25 years in federal prison without parole. On Oct...

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge John A. Ross on Tuesday sentenced a St. Louis man who sold a fatal dose of fentanyl to 17 years in prison. On March 6, 2020, Markquis Bryant sold fentanyl to a Florissant man who was found dead early the next morning in his...

EL PASO – Last week, the New Mexico High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas Program (NM HIDTA) received a national recognition for its work in southeastern New Mexico under Operation Shape Shifter. White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) Director Dr. Rahul Gupta made the announcement. The NM HIDTA...

EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. – After a week-long trial, a federal jury returned a guilty verdict convicting a California man of conspiracy to possess with intent to deliver controlled substances. Arturo Ledesma, Jr., 33, of Watsonville, Calif., was charged in a superseding indictment on Dec. 10, 2019, with supplying marijuana...

EL PASO – Jennipher Talamantes, a counselor at an El Paso school district, and Jennifer and David Burke, the Executive Directors of Serenity Mesa Recovery Center in Albuquerque, were the only El Pasoan and New Mexicans invited to meet with Administrator Anne Milgram as part of the first-ever DEA Family...

ST. LOUIS – An osteopathic physician from Collinsville, Illinois, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court Tuesday and admitted illegally prescribing an anti-anxiety drug. Matthew Steven Miller, 43, pleaded guilty to one count of obtaining a controlled substance by fraud and one count of making a false statement concerning a health...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – A Liberty, Mo., man was sentenced in federal court today for distributing fentanyl from his apartment near Liberty High School and for illegally possessing a firearm. Daniel I. Ramirez, 22, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Gary A. Fenner to 11 years in federal prison without...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Three defendants were indicted by a federal grand jury today for their roles in a conspiracy to distribute large amounts of methamphetamine in southwest Missouri after law enforcement officers seized approximately 29 pounds of methamphetamine. Brian E. Hall, 44, of Aurora, Mo., and Jacqueline Aldrete Bojorquez...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Two St. Joseph, Mo., men have pleaded guilty to their roles in a conspiracy to distribute heroin and to illegally possessing firearms. Franklin T. Hicks Jr., also known as “Frankie,” 41, pleaded guilty today before U.S. District Judge Greg Kays to participating in a conspiracy to...

EL PASO – In the past few days, the Drug Enforcement Administration El Paso Division has learned of several instances of individuals who used illicit drugs and then experienced overdose symptoms. It is suspected that the illicit drugs may be mixed with a synthetic opioid. DEA El Paso Division has...