United States Drug Enforcement Administration

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. - -Troy Derby, Assistant Special Agent-in-(ASAC) of DEA’s Kansas City’s District Office announced on May 31, 2017, that DEA had secured 20 year prison sentences for two men residing in the Springfield, Missouri, area. Anthony J. Van Pelt, 38, or Springfield, Missouri, was sentenced to 21 years...

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. - -On May 18, 2017, Assistant Special Agent in (ASAC) Troy Derby of the Kansas City District Office announced that two women, one from St. Charles, Missouri, and the other from Republic, Missouri, were sentenced in federal court for their roles in a conspiracy to distribute large...

OMAHA, Neb. - - Darin Thimmesch, Assistant Special Agent-in-Charge of DEA’s Omaha District Office announced on May 18, 2017, that DEA had secured a prison sentenced for Daniel Perez-Heredia. Perez-Heredia, 29, a resident alien from Worthington, MN, was sentenced to more than five years in federal prison for conspiracy to...

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. - -On May 16, 2017, Assistant Special Agent in (ASAC) Troy Derby of the Kansas City District Office announced that Joseph Nicko Winters, 45, of Independence, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Stephen R. Bough, District Court Judge in the United States District Court, Western District of...

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. - -On May 16, 2017, Assistant Special Agent in (ASAC) Troy Derby of the Kansas City District Office announced that two Kansas City, Mo., men pleaded guilty in federal court to their roles in a $1.2 million conspiracy to distribute oxycodone that was obtained by using forged...

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. - -On May 16, 2017, Troy Derby, Assistant Special Agent in (ASAC) of the Kansas City District Office, announced that a Nevada, Mo., woman was sentenced in federal court for her role in a conspiracy to exchange “food stamps” for methamphetamine or cash. ASAC Derby announced that...

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - - James P. Shroba, Special Agent-in-Charge of the St. Louis Division announced that a California man pled guilty in federal court today to his role in a conspiracy to distribute large quantities of methamphetamine that was shipped from California to Springfield, Missouri. Romulo Frank Delatorre, 36, of...

MONGOMERY, Ala. - Dr. Robert M. Ritchea, 54, of LaGrange, Georgia, pled guilty to conspiring to unlawfully distribute a controlled substance through operating a “pill mill” and money laundering scheme, announced Drug Enforcement Administration Assistant Special Agent-in-Charge Bret Hamilton and United States Attorney George L. Beck, Jr. A “pill mill”...

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - Three defendants were sentenced to federal prison last week for drug trafficking, announced Drug Enforcement (DEA) Assistant Special Agent in Charge Matthew Barden and Kenneth Elser, United States Attorney for the Western District of Arkansas. Santiago (aka Chuco), age 47, of Commerce, Oklahoma, was sentenced to 151...

SAN DIEGO - Physician Naga Raja Thota, a pain specialist with an office in El Cajon, pleaded guilty in federal court yesterday, admitting that he fraudulently and illegally wrote prescriptions for hundreds of oxycodone and hydrocodone tablets for patients with no medical necessity, one of whom was a sex partner...