United States Drug Enforcement Administration

WASHINGTON - - The United States Drug Enforcement (DEA) today announced the tragic loss of Special Agent James “Terry” Watson, who was murdered in what appears to have been a robbery attempt last night in Bogota, Colombia. At the time of his death, Special Agent Watson was assigned to the...

WASHINGTON - - The DEA today announced that the U.S. Department of the Treasury designated 18 individuals and 15 entities linked to Rafael Caro Quintero, a Mexican drug trafficker. Rafael Caro Quintero is a significant Mexican narcotics trafficker who began his criminal career in the late 1970s when he and...

WASHINGTON - - Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Derek Maltz, the Special Operations Division Special Agent in Charge of the United States Drug Enforcement (DEA), today announced the unsealing of charges against Samuel Antonio Pinedo-Rueda, Solomon Adelaquaye, Frank Muodum, and Celestine...

WASHINGTON - - DEA Administrator Michele M. Leonhart today announced that MANSSOR ARBABSIAR, a/k/a “Mansour Arbabsiar,” was sentenced today in Manhattan federal court to 25 years in prison for participating in a plot to murder the SaudiArabian Ambassador to the U.S., while the Ambassador was in the U.S. ARBABSIAR, a...

WASHINGTON - DEA Administrator Michele M. Leonhart and other federal officials today announced the extradition of ALFONSO PORTILLO, the former President of Guatemala, who is charged with conspiring to launder millions of dollars he embezzled from the Government of Guatemala through bank accounts located in the United States. Portillo arrived...

WASHINGTON - DEA Administrator Michele M. Leonhart and Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, today announced that Richard Ammar Chichakli, an associate of the convicted international arms dealer Viktor Bout, was extradited from Australia on charges that he allegedly conspired with Bout and...

WASHINGTON - Today the United States Drug Enforcement (DEA) made the synthetic cannabinoids UR-144, XLR11, and AKB48 Schedule I, illegal drugs under the Controlled Substances (CSA) for the next two years. These cannabinoids areoften seen in so-called “fake pot” products that are falsely marketed and sold as “herbal incense” or...

WASHINGTON - The United States Drug Enforcement Administration’(DEA’s) Sixth National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day this past Saturday collected 50 percent more pills than the previous one, demonstrating the American public’s continued appreciation and need for the opportunity to discard unwanted, unused and expired prescription drugs from medicine cabinets, bedside tables...

WASHINGTON - After collecting more than 1,000 tons of expired, unwanted prescription medications at previous events over the past three years, the Drug Enforcement (DEA) and its national, tribal, and community partners will hold a sixth National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day across the country on Saturday, April 27th. Collection sites...

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Department of the Treasury today named two Lebanese exchange houses, Kassem Rmeiti & Co. For (Rmeiti Exchange) and Halawi Exchange Co. (Halawi Exchange), as foreign financial institutions of primary money laundering concern under Section 311 of the USA PATRIOT (Section 311) - the first time the...