United States Drug Enforcement Administration

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is announcing three new rules to make permanent some temporary telemedicine flexibilities established during the COVID-19 public health emergency while also establishing new patient protections. In developing these rules, DEA has focused on the patient to ensure telemedicine is accessible for medical care...

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – A Portageville, Mo., man has been convicted in a jury trial of trafficking methamphetamine and illegally possessing firearms. Michael C. Patton, 36, was found guilty on Tuesday, Jan. 14, of possessing methamphetamine with the intent to distribute, possessing firearms in furtherance of a drug-trafficking crime, and being...

SAN DIEGO –Scott Anthony Sargent of San Diego pleaded guilty in federal court today, admitting that he supplied the fentanyl that caused the fatal overdoses of a 40-year-old woman and a 35-year-old man in North Park in 2022. San Diego Police officers, along with investigators from the Drug Enforcement Administration’s...

SAN DIEGO – Keith Octavio Rodriguez Padilla, a prolific firearms trafficker, was sentenced in federal court today to 19.5 years in custody for his role in supplying weapons and tens of thousands of rounds of ammunition to the Sinaloa Cartel. This case is part of a long-running investigation targeting the...

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Sarah E. Pitlyk on Thursday sentenced a man who sold the fentanyl that killed one woman and sent another to the hospital in one day in 2019 to 14 years in prison. Zachary Hovis, 24, provided fentanyl to an 18-year-old woman in the parking...

BENTON, Ill. – A district court judge sentenced two Houston, Texas, men to federal prison for burglarizing pharmacies of controlled substances in Casey, Illinois, and Poplar Bluff, Missouri. McKindley V. Allen, 32, and DaLeon J. Fontennet, 28, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit burglary involving controlled substances, conspiracy to distribute...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – A Raytown, Mo., man was indicted by a federal grand jury today after federal agents found large quantities of fentanyl, methamphetamine, and heroin in his residence along with several firearms. Jauan D. Pratt, 30, was charged in a three-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury...

San Diego – Bryan Kim Bullard pleaded guilty in federal court today to distributing the fentanyl that resulted in the death of a 25-year-old Carlsbad woman. According to the plea agreement, on September 9, 2023, Bullard’s co-defendant, Cameron William Fulston, reached out to the victim, identified in court records as...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – A Fulton, Mo., man was sentenced in federal court today for possessing methamphetamine with the intent to distribute. Clayton Key Craddock, 40, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Brian C. Wimes to 15 years and eight months in federal prison without parole. Craddock was sentenced as...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – An Osage Beach, Mo., nurse pleaded guilty in federal court today to illegally obtaining fentanyl from a hospital for his own use. Charles Welch Jr., 65, waived his right to a grand jury and pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Roseann A. Ketchmark to a federal...