United States Drug Enforcement Administration

SAN DIEGO – Egisto Salerno, M.D., a San Diego resident, was sentenced to 18 months in custody by U.S. District Judge Cynthia Ann Bashant for causing the illegal distribution of an opioid pain medication commonly known as Norco or Vicodin. Salerno, whose medical practice was located on El Cajon Boulevard...

SAN DIEGO – Javier Felix Bayardo, a resident of Sinaloa, Mexico who was living in the San Diego area, was sentenced in federal court today to 17 years in custody for his role as the organizer of drug and money- laundering conspiracies and for possessing firearms in furtherance of a...

SAN DIEGO – DEA is holding its 19th National Prescription Drug Take Back Day on Saturday, Oct. 24 at locations across the country. The nationwide event aims to provide a safe, convenient, and responsible means of disposing prescription drugs, while also educating the general public about the potential for abuse...

SAN DIEGO – Christopher Glenn Emison of El Cajon was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Anthony J. Battaglia to 168 months in prison for distributing more than 40 grams of fentanyl - including the fentanyl that caused the death of 45-year old Derrick Hotchkiss. On April 11, 2019, Hotchkiss...

WASHINGTON – Drug Enforcement Administration Acting Administrator Timothy J. Shea today announced that the DEA will direct resources to help reduce violent crime in communities throughout the country. Under this initiative, called Project Safeguard, DEA will identify and prioritize ongoing drug trafficking investigations with a nexus to violent crime. “D...

SAN DIEGO – U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers at the Otay Mesa commercial facility Friday seized more than 3,100 pounds of methamphetamine, fentanyl powder, fentanyl pills and heroin as part of the second largest methamphetamine bust along the southwest border in the history of the CBP, based on...

WASHINGTON – Today, Attorney General William P. Barr and Drug Enforcement Administration Acting Administrator Timothy J. Shea announced the results of Operation Crystal Shield, DEA’s six-month-long effort targeting the command and control elements of Mexican cartels that operate major methamphetamine “transportation hubs” in the United States. At a press conference...

SAN DIEGO – Federal District Court Judge Gonzalo P. Curiel today sentenced defendant Michael Steen to 148 months in prison for supplying the fentanyl that led to a 33-year-old Ramona woman’s fatal overdose on July 9, 2018. On March 4, 2020, Steen pleaded guilty to Conspiracy to Distribute Fentanyl, and...

SAN DIEGO – Federal agents on the San Diego Tunnel Task Force uncovered a sophisticated drug smuggling tunnel on Thursday, March 19, which extends under the United States-Mexico border to a warehouse in a commercial complex in the Otay Mesa area of San Diego. The discovery of the tunnel resulted...

EL CENTRO, Calif. – The region’s highest-ranking law enforcement officials joined together today to issue a dire public safety alert about the extreme danger of fentanyl-laced pills following the fatal overdose of a 15-year-old boy, the youngest person known to have died as a result of fentanyl in Imperial County...