United States Drug Enforcement Administration

NEW ORLEANS - Americans nationwide did their part to drop off a record number of unused, unwanted or expired prescription medications during the DEA’s 15th annual National Prescription Drug Take Back Day, at close to 6,000 sites across the country. Together with a record-setting amount of local, state and federal...

SAN FRANCISCO - Northern Californians did their part to drop off unused, unwanted, or expired prescription medications during the DEA’s 15th National Prescription Drug Take Back Day, at more than 150 sites in the region. Together with our local, state, and federal partners DEA collected and destroyed 30,172 (15 tons)...

WASHINGTON - The Drug Enforcement Administration today announced the issuance of an Immediate Suspension Order served on Morris and Dickson Company, a wholesale pharmaceutical distributor, located in Shreveport, Louisiana. Morris and Dickson Company has been the subject of a DEA investigation that alleges that this distribution center failed to properly...

NEW ORLEANS - An indictment was unsealed today against Dr. Wayne Jerome Celestine, age 57, a physician who practices in Gretna, Louisiana and resides in the New Orleans area, announced Drug Enforcement (DEA) Special Agent in Charge Stephen G. Azzam and U.S. Attorney Duane A. Evans. On Monday, April 30...

SAN FRANCISCO - Steven J. Nemec was sentenced today to 57 months prison and ordered to forfeit $80,000 for structuring cash transactions. The sentence was handed down by the Honorable Susan Illston, U.S. District Judge, following Nemec’s entry of a guilty plea on September 1, 2017. According to his guilty...

FRESNO, Calif. - A Modesto physician, Sawtantra Kumar Chopra, 71, was arrested today, charged with prescribing opioids to patients outside the usual course of professional practice and not for a legitimate medical purpose. On April 19, 2018, a federal grand jury in Fresno brought a 22-count indictment against Chopra. He...

SAN FRANCISCO - The Drug Enforcement Administration and its national, tribal, and community partners will hold the 15th National Prescription Drug Take Back Day on Saturday, April 28th. Since 2010 Northern California residents have turned in more than 413,000 (206 tons) of expired, unused and unwanted medications. The service is...

NEW ORLEANS, La. - After collecting more than 9 million (4,500 tons) of expired, unused and unwanted prescription medications at 14 previous events over the past 8 years, the Drug Enforcement Administration and its national, tribal, and community partners will hold the 15th National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day across the...

FRESNO, Calif. - Brothers Yousef Aezah, 28; Adhim Aezah, 23; and Dirar Aezah, 19, all of Bakersfield, pleaded guilty today to maintaining a drug-involved premise for the purpose of manufacturing and distributing synthetic cannabinoids or “spice,” U.S. Attorney McGregor W. Scott and Drug Enforcement (DEA) Acting Special Agent in Charge...

WASHINGTON - A New Orleans, Louisiana-area woman pleaded guilty today for her participation in a scheme to obtain oxycodone through fraud by creating fictitious prescriptions and to possess with intent to distribute oxycodone on the black market. Acting Assistant Attorney General John P. Cronan of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division...