United States Drug Enforcement Administration

SAN DIEGO – A Chula Vista man was sentenced today in federal court to 10 years in prison for distributing fentanyl that led to the non-fatal overdoses of five people in Alpine, some of whom were revived by first responders with naloxone. In sentencing Joel Rodriguez of Chula Vista, U.S...

SAN DIEGO – April Spring Kelly admitted in federal court today that she smuggled more than 450,000 fentanyl pills from Mexico into the United States during a nine-month conspiracy from February to October of 2018. According to admissions in her plea agreement, Kelly smuggled the fentanyl pills through ports of...

LOS ANGELES – As part of a joint federal-state law enforcement action targeting the Rancho San Pedro street gang, authorities this morning unsealed two federal grand jury indictments that charge 14 members and associates of the gang with narcotics and firearms offenses. The main federal indictment, which charges 13 defendants...

SAN DIEGO – Willian Estuardo Lemus Lara, a suspected high-level cartel boss from Central America, was arraigned in federal court today on maritime cocaine trafficking charges. According to the documents filed in court, Lemus was the manager of the transportation and distribution cell responsible for facilitating multi-ton quantity cocaine loads...

LEMON GROVE, Calif. – Yesterday the United States Drug Enforcement Administration executed a federal search warrant at a warehouse located at 7648 Lemon Avenue, Lemon Grove, Calif., and uncovered a sophisticated hash oil refinery laboratory operation. Large quantities of ethanol were removed from the property by San Diego County HAZMAT...

SAN DIEGO – Indictments were unsealed today in San Diego federal court charging 43 members of a methamphetamine distribution network tied to the Sinaloa Cartel with federal drug trafficking and money laundering offenses. During the coordinated takedown that began early this morning, agents executed over a dozen search warrants. Agents...

EL CAJON, Calif. – Yesterday, DEA’s Narcotic Task Force (NTF) responded to a hash oil extraction laboratory explosion in the city of El Cajon. This explosion occurred less than two weeks after the significant hash oil extraction laboratory explosion in the Mira Mesa area of San Diego, which sent three...

LOS ANGELES – DEA’s Los Angeles Division continues to lead the global investigation into Mexico’s most violent and largest drug cartel, the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG) and it’s leader Nemesio Oseguera-Cervantes, aka "El Mencho." DEA Los Angeles Division indicted El Mencho on federal drug trafficking charges in 2014...

WARNER SPRINGS, Calif. – Yesterday the DEA’s Narcotic Task Force executed a state search warrant at 30570 Chihuahua Valley Road, Warner Springs, Calif. Agents uncovered a sophisticated butane hash oil extraction lab inside three trailers on the property. In addition to extracting hash oil, the lab operators were also refining...

LOS ANGELES – After 24 years of dedicated service to the United States, Special Agent in Charge (SAC) David J. Downing III of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Los Angeles Division will retire on May 31. “This decision was not an easy one,“ said SAC Downing. “But it’s time.” Mr. Downing...