United States Drug Enforcement Administration

MIAMI - With opioid overdose deaths increasing during the pandemic, the Drug Enforcement Administration is holding its 20th Take Back Day on Saturday, April 24th. DEA’s October 2020 Take Back Day brought in a record-high amount of expired, unused prescription medications, with the public turning in close to 500 tons...

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) saw a jump in drug seizures across South Dakota in 2020, as compared to 2019, with methamphetamine topping the list of most commonly seized drugs at 150 pounds. By comparison, in 2019, DEA investigators seized 29 pounds of methamphetamine, half the weight of South Dakota’s...

ORLANDO, Fla. - Irving Cepeda-Chico (39, Kissimmee) was sentenced to 14 years in federal prison for 12 counts of distribution of controlled substances and 1 count of conspiracy to distribute such substances. Cepeda-Chico had pleaded guilty on November 20, 2020. According to court documents, Cepeda-Chico was involved in obtaining and...

MIAMI - South Florida federal prosecutors have charged the leader of a notorious Mexican drug cartel and five others for their alleged roles in importing into the United States over 500 kilograms of Mexican methamphetamine. In the largest methamphetamine seizure in Miami-Dade County history, law enforcement agents seized the over...

OMAHA, Neb. –Seizures of fentanyl and heroin made by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in North Dakota increased in 2020 with investigators seeing a 223 percent increase from 2019 in the two drugs combined. Fentanyl, estimated at approximately 100 times more potent than morphine and 50 times more potent than...

TAMPA, Fla. - Jason A. Crowder (42, Zephyrhills) was sentenced to 10 years and 1 month in federal prison for possession with the intent to distribute 50 grams or more of methamphetamine. Crowder had pleaded guilty on December 8, 2020. According to court documents, on January 17, 2020, deputies from...

ORLANDO, Fla. - Freddie Miguel Velez-Gonzalez (53, Orlando) has pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute more than 40 grams of fentanyl and more than 100 grams of heroin, and to six counts of distribution and possession with the intent to distribute controlled...

MIAMI – Carlton Cash (49, Fort Lauderdale, Florida) was sentenced to ten years in prison for distributing crystal methamphetamine. Cash holds an active Florida medical license. Cash was charged and convicted of selling over 150 grams of crystal methamphetamine in Broward County, Florida over an eight-month period starting in 2019...

OMAHA, Neb. –The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is reporting a 30 percent increase in fentanyl seizures in Minnesota for 2020, after investigators pulled 6.2 kilograms, or the equivalent of more than three million lethal doses, off the streets. Included in the 6.2 kilograms are more than 55,000 counterfeit pills, many...

TAMPA, Fla. – An indictment charging Gerardo Gomez-Lubo, a/k/a Francisco Niño (42, Colombia), with conspiracy to distribute large amounts of cocaine knowing and intending it to be imported into the United States was unsealed today. If convicted on all counts, Gerardo Gomez-Lubo faces a maximum penalty of life in federal...