United States Drug Enforcement Administration

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – Three southwest Missouri residents are among five defendants indicted for their roles in a drug-trafficking conspiracy after federal agents seized 16 kilograms of cocaine while arresting two co-defendants in Texas. Mario Jose Castillo, 55, of Springfield, Mo.; Christhian Eduardo Cruz-Pineda, 22, a citizen of Honduras residing in...

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – An inmate of the Lawton Correctional Facility in Oklahoma has been sentenced in federal court for leading a conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine in Greene and Polk Counties while he was incarcerated. Joshua A. Ramirez, 39, who has no legal address, was sentenced by U.S. Chief District Judge...

SPRINGFIFELD, Mo. – Springfield, Mo., man was sentenced in federal court today for his role in a conspiracy to distribute heroin in Greene County, Mo. James D. Elbert, 42, was sentenced by U.S. Chief District Judge Beth Phillips to 10 years in federal prison without parole. On July 5, 2023...

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. – U.S. District Judge Stephen N. Limbaugh Jr. on Thursday sentenced a Poplar Bluff, Missouri, man to 10 years in prison for repeatedly selling methamphetamine and another two years for violating his supervised release for an earlier heroin distribution case. Joshua E. Forbes, 31, sold meth to...

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Matthew T. Schelp on Wednesday sentenced a man who sold millions of counterfeit Xanax pills on the Darknet to two years in prison, fined him $10,000 and ordered him to forfeit nearly $1 million. Brandon Adams, 27, will also be on supervised release for...

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge John A. Ross on Wednesday sentenced a man from St. Louis County, Missouri, who sold drugs to a woman who later died, to seven years in prison. Donald Lawrence Bateman, 28, pleaded guilty in January to distribution of a controlled substance and possession with...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – An Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, man has pleaded guilty to his role in a conspiracy to distribute cocaine after law enforcement officers seized more than $1 million worth of cocaine from a rental truck that was stopped on Interstate 70 in Lafayette County, Mo. Luis Gerardo Nieto-Acosta...

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – Alfred Cooke, Assistant Special Agent in Charge of Drug Enforcement Administration-Merrillville, Indiana, and U.S. Attorney Clifford D. Johnson for the Southern District of Indiana announced that Michael Querry, 52, of South Bend, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Damon R. Leichty after pleading guilty to...

ST. LOUIS – A man from Texas on Friday admitted selling 1.4 kilograms of methamphetamine to an undercover Drug Enforcement Administration agent and giving the agent another kilogram of cocaine to sell. On Aug. 16, 2022, Marco Chavira met with the agent in El Paso. Chavira believed the agent was...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – An anesthesiologist at a Lee’s Summit, Mo., hospital pleaded guilty in federal court today to illegally taking prescription fentanyl from the hospital. Roman Peplinski, 37, of Kansas City, Mo., waived his right to a grand jury and pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Greg Kays to...