United States Drug Enforcement Administration

ALBUQUERQUE – This week, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), and the U.S. Marshal Service, the Las Cruces Police Department, and the Doña Ana Sheriff’s Office, conducted a coordinated operation to dismantle a significant drug trafficking network in Las Cruces, New Mexico. The operation targeted 15...

EL PASO, Texas – Twenty-one individuals suspected of being affiliated with the Chuco Tango street gang were arrested Thursday in and around El Paso on criminal charges related to their alleged involvement in trafficking of fentanyl, cocaine and methamphetamine, and/or the unlawful possession of firearms. The following defendants were indicted...

EL PASO, Texas – A Mexican national was sentenced in a federal court in El Paso to 70 months in prison for possession with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of a mixture or substance containing a detectable amount of methamphetamine. According to court documents, Cesar Tarango Cobos, 42...

PHOENIX, Ariz. – Hector Manuel Cruz, Jr., 29, of Chandler, was sentenced last week by United States District Judge G. Murray Snow to 15 years in prison, followed by five years of supervised release. On April 25, 2023, Cruz pleaded guilty to Possession with Intent to Distribute Methamphetamine. Co-defendant Konstantin...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Alexander M.M. Uballez, United States Attorney for the District of New Mexico, and Raul Bujanda, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Albuquerque Field Office, announced today that Gabriel Monico Guevara was sentenced to 3 years in prison, a $10,000 fine, and $1,000 in...

ALPINE, Texas – An El Paso man was sentenced Monday in a federal courthouse in Alpine to 96 months in prison for possession with intent to distribute marijuana. According to court documents, Hector Bernal Jr., 36, was a passenger in a vehicle that entered the primary inspection lane at the...

TUCSON, Ariz. – Jonathan Edward Mayer, 22, of Tacoma, Washington, was sentenced on June 30, 2023, by U.S. District Judge Scott H. Rash to 84 months in prison. Mayer previously pleaded guilty to Conspiracy to Possess with Intent to Distribute Marijuana, Possession with Intent to Distribute Marijuana, Possession of a...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Gregory M. Millard, Special Agent in Charge of the DEA's El Paso Division, and Alexander M.M. Uballez, United States Attorney for the District of New Mexico, announced today that Cruz Lopez-Acevedo was sentenced to 14 years in prison. Lopez-Acevedo, 52, of Zacatecas, Mexico, pleaded guilty on March...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Alexander M.M. Uballez, United States Attorney for the District of New Mexico, announced that Luis Carlos Vásquez-Barragán, 51, of Nicolás Bravo, Chihuahua, Mexico, was sentenced to prison for possession with intent to distribute at least 50 kilograms but less than 100 kilograms of marijuana. Vásquez-Barragán was arrested...

PECOS – A federal jury convicted a Mexican national last week of importing and possessing marijuana. According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) agents encountered Jose Manuel Ayala-Alas, 26, and six other co-defendants hiding in the brush in the High Lonesome Mountains on June...