United States Drug Enforcement Administration

DEC 6 - LOS ANGELES - Law enforcement authorities this morning arrested 18 defendants named in three federal grand jury indictments stemming from Operation Roman Empire, a 2½-year investigation into South Los Angeles street gangs allegedly controlled by a Mexican Mafia member who directs criminal activities through his daughter. A...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - - Earlier today, Charles Padilla, 44, of Albuquerque, N.M., made his initial appearance in federal court on a criminal complaint charging him with possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute. Padilla is temporarily detained pending a preliminary hearing and a detention hearing, both of which are scheduled...

EL PASO, Texas - In El Paso this afternoon, former El Paso County Precinct 3 Commissioner Guillermo “Willie” Gandara, Jr., 37, of El Paso, was sentenced to 78 months imprisonment on federal drug trafficking and money laundering charges announced Drug Enforcement (DEA) Special Agent in Charge Joseph M. Arabit, U.S...

LOS ANGELES - A dozen people associated with a chain of nine marijuana stores that operated across Orange and Los Angeles counties were arrested this morning on federal drug trafficking charges. The 12 arrested are among 14 people named in a 14-count indictment returned last week by a federal grand...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - Nine individuals, who allegedly participated in a Deming, N.M., based conspiracy to distribute large quantities of methamphetamine, have been charged with narcotics trafficking offenses in a federal indictment that was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico in Las Cruces. The indictment...

LOS ANGELES - A federal grand jury has returned a superseding indictment that charges 16 defendants with being part of a drug trafficking organization that illegally obtained and distributed more than 900,000 OxyContin pills obtained in part through fraud against public insurance programs such as Medicare. One of the defendants...

LOS ANGELES - On October 12, 2012, a federal jury in Los Angeles convicted Mr. Aaron Sandusky, 41, of Rancho Cucamonga, former president of G3 Holistics, Inc., a marijuana business operating in the Inland Empire, of one count of conspiracy to manufacture marijuana plants, to possess with intent to distribute...

LAS CRUCES, N.M. - Special Agent in Charge, Joseph Arabit, Drug Enforcement Administration-El Paso Division, and United States Attorney Robert Pitman announced that in Las Cruces, NM, today, United States District Judge Robert C. Brack sentenced four defendants to federal prison for their roles in a firearms trafficking operation. Judge...

LAS CRUCES, N.M. -- - Twenty individuals, who allegedly participated in conspiracies to distribute marijuana and cocaine from Mexico in New Mexico, Colorado, Wisconsin, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota and Tennessee, and to launder drug proceeds, are charged with drug trafficking and money laundering charges in two federal indictments that were unsealed...

LOS ANGELES - A Los Angeles area toy wholesaler, its two owners, and the company’s primary bookkeeper pleaded guilty today to federal charges related to their participation in an elaborate scheme known as a Black Market Peso Exchange, which enables drug trafficking organizations in Mexico and Colombia to launder proceeds...