United States Drug Enforcement Administration

SAN DIEGO – DEA Acting Administrator Uttam Dhillon today announced the publication of the 2019 National Drug Threat Assessment, which outlines the threats posed to the United States by domestic and international drug trafficking and the abuse of illicit drugs. “This year’s report illustrates a shifting drug landscape in the...

SAN DIEGO – After a challenging multi-year, inter-agency investigation, utilizing technology capabilities, intelligence gathering, and community outreach, law enforcement partners on the San Diego Tunnel Task Force have exposed the longest illicit cross-border tunnel ever discovered along the Southwest border. The tunnel originates in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico in an...

NEWARK, N.J. – DEA New Jersey Division Special Agent in Charge Susan A. Gibson and U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey Craig Carpenito announced three New Jersey men today admitted their roles in a Passaic County cocaine distribution conspiracy. Narcisco Ramirez, 46, of Passaic; Kiuny Perez, 42, of...

CAMDEN, N.J. – New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal and Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro today announced arrests in the takedown of a major Philadelphia-based gun trafficking ring that illegally trafficked numerous guns and methamphetamine into Camden. In total, the joint investigation, “Operation Zombie,” resulted in the recovery of...

TRENTON, N.J. – DEA New Jersey Division Special Agent in Charge Susan A. Gibson and U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey Craig Carpenito announced a Pennsylvania man and two Mercer County, N.J., men today admitted their roles distributing heroin in and around Trenton. Duane Paulino-Escalera, 27, of Philadelphia...

SAN DIEGO – Egisto Salerno, a medical doctor practicing in San Diego, pleaded guilty to opioid distribution in federal court today, admitting that he signed bogus prescriptions for multiple deceased or incarcerated patients. According to his plea agreement, Salerno, 75, illegally distributed 78,544 hydrocodone pills. Hydrocodone is an opioid pain...

NEWARK, N.J. – Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s New Jersey Division Susan A. Gibson, and U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey Craig Carpenito, announced three New Jersey men were charged with possession of cocaine and heroin with intent to distribute. Robin Peralta, 37, of...

SAN DIEGO – Orlando Balderas Guerrero, of Menifee, Calif., was sentenced in federal court today to 10 years in custody for participating in a conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine. According to his plea agreement, Guerrero admitted that for a one-year period, he obtained bulk methamphetamine from a broker in Mexico and...

SAN DIEGO – April Spring Kelly, of San Diego, was sentenced in federal court on Friday to 14 years in prison for conspiring to smuggle more than 450,000 fentanyl pills from Mexico into the United States during a nine-month period ending in October 2018. According to admissions in her plea...

NEWARK, N.J. – DEA New Jersey Division Special Agent in Charge Susan A. Gibson and U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey Craig Carpenito announced a member of the Grape Street Crips gang was sentenced today to life in prison for murder in aid of racketeering, racketeering conspiracy, conspiracy...