DEA Archived Press Releases

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

Ceramic Art Concealed 3.4 Kilograms of Methamphetamine

PECOS, Texas – A federal jury convicted a Dallas man last Thursday for possessing methamphetamine. According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Oscar Santiago Garcia Sanchez, 32, drove a vehicle with a trailer filled with ceramic art pieces into the Presidio Port of Entry. During inspection, Customs and...
PRESS RELEASE

Drug Trafficker who used Teens as Couriers Sentenced to 85 Months

SAN DIEGO – A Tijuana-based drug trafficker who used teens as drug couriers was sentenced in federal court today to seven years in prison and a $50,000 fine for his leadership role in coordinating the movement of large quantities of cocaine, heroin, fentanyl, and methamphetamine to San Diego from Mexico...
PRESS RELEASE

Federal Jury Returns Guilty Verdict in Fatal Fentanyl Overdose Case

SAN DIEGO - A federal jury returned a guilty verdict today convicting Jahvaris Lamoun Springfield of selling Brendan James Gallagher fentanyl pills that resulted in Gallagher’s fatal overdose on February 5, 2019. Springfield is scheduled to be sentenced on December 14, 2021, by U.S. District Judge Larry Alan Burns. The...
PRESS RELEASE

Man Indicted for Distribution of Oxymorphone Causing Death

EL PASO – A federal grand jury in El Paso returned an indictment last week charging an El Paso man with distribution of a controlled substance causing death. According to court documents, on or about March 11, 2019, Michael Martinez, 30, distributed oxymorphone, also known as numorphan, to another individual...
PRESS RELEASE

Former El Paso Police Officer Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy to Aid Cocaine Distribution

EL PASO – A former El Paso police officer pleaded guilty on Aug. 9, 2021 to conspiracy to maintain a drug-involved premise. According to court documents, Monica Garcia, 24, conspired with Fred Saenz, her stepfather and co-defendant, to use Saenz’s residence to distribute cocaine. Agents determined that Saenz was using...
PRESS RELEASE

Federal Charges Filed Following Record-Breaking Drug Seizure

SAN DIEGO – Acting U.S. Attorney Randy Grossman announced federal drug charges today against Defendant Carlos Gerardo Symonds Saavedra following the seizure of more than 2,500 kilograms of methamphetamine and 50 kilograms of fentanyl found in a commercial trailer at the Otay Mesa, California Cargo Port of Entry (POE). The...
PRESS RELEASE

El Cajon Resident Pleads Guilty to Selling Counterfeit Pills Causing 19 Year Old's Death

SAN DIEGO – Olatunde James Temitope Akintonde of El Cajon, California pleaded guilty in federal court yesterday, admitting that he sold fentanyl-laced pills that caused the death of a nineteen-year-old Santee, California man, identified in court records as S.J.G., in March of 2019. According to his plea agreement, Akintonde admitted...
PRESS RELEASE

Sixty Defendants Charged in Nationwide Takedown of Sinaloa Cartel Methamphetamine Network

SAN DIEGO – An indictment was unsealed today in federal court charging 60 members of a San Diego-based international methamphetamine distribution network tied to the Sinaloa Cartel with drug trafficking, money laundering and firearms offenses. During the last month, hundreds of federal, state, and local law enforcement agents and officers...
PRESS RELEASE

Pacific Beach Resident Sentenced for Distributing Fentanyl that Caused Two Overdoses

SAN DIEGO – Pacific Beach resident Maya Kol was sentenced in federal court today to 15 years in prison for selling fentanyl powder that caused the death of one man and sent another to the hospital over Labor Day weekend in September 2018. Two other men—including the source of Kol’s...
PRESS RELEASE

Three in Albuquerque Charged with Possessing, Trafficking Methamphetamine and Fentanyl

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – John Seibel, 25, Robert Pettit, 51, and Barbara Dockery, 64, all of Albuquerque, appeared in federal court June 17 for their roles in a drug trafficking organization run by Seibel, i.e, the Seibel DTO. Detention hearings for each defendant are scheduled for June 21. On June 9...