United States Drug Enforcement Administration

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...

WASHINGTON—The Drug Enforcement Administration today announced a comprehensive review of DEA’s international operations and foreign footprint, including administrative and financial support for those operations from DEA headquarters. Administrator Anne Milgram has recommended a top to bottom review of foreign operations that will be overseen by an independent team. As part...

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...

WASHINGTON – A Chinese national and naturalized U.S. citizen pleaded guilty yesterday to his involvement in a conspiracy to launder at least $30 million in drug proceeds on behalf of foreign drug-trafficking organizations. Another Chinese national was sentenced to seven years in prison today for his role in the same...

WASHINGTON – DEA Administrator Anne Milgram and U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Audrey Strauss today announced the extradition two Pakistani citizens, who will face charges for attempting to import large quantities of heroin into the United States. Maulabaksh Gorgeech and Niamatullah Gorgeech were taken into custody...

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...

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...

WASHINGTON – On June 28, Anne Milgram was sworn in as Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration by U.S. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland following confirmation by the U.S. Senate June 24. As DEA Administrator, she leads an agency of more than 10,000 people, including nearly 5,000 Special Agents and...

WASHINGTON – The Drug Enforcement Administration today announced an important step to improve access to medications for opioid use disorder, especially in rural areas where those suffering with opioid use disorder may have limited treatment options. Under the final rule published today, DEA registrants who are authorized to dispense methadone...

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...