United States Drug Enforcement Administration

SAN DIEGO - Sixty alleged members and associates of the Mexico-based Sinaloa Cartel - including the highest ranking leaders, lieutenants and operators of multiple distribution cells - are charged in 14 indictments unsealed today with trafficking huge quantities of methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin and marijuana to points around the United States...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - John Winton Harris, 31, of Sacramento, was sentenced today by United States District Judge Morrison C. England Jr. to 21 years and 10 months in prison for possessing more than 163 grams of crack cocaine. According to evidence presented at trial, Sacramento police officers responded to a...

SAN FRANCISCO - Paul D. Woodward was arraigned yesterday for allegedly operating a scheme to defraud Medicare and allegedly distributing controlled substances. A federal grand jury in San Francisco indicted Paul D. Woodward and Karen Kramer on December 4, 2014. The indictment remained under seal until December 11, 2014, when...

FRESNO, Calif. - Chad Allen Riffle, 22, of Citrus Springs, Florida, pleaded guilty today to one count of conspiring to structure cash transactions. According to the plea agreement and court documents, Riffle and seven co-defendants opened and maintained bank accounts for the purpose of funneling cash proceeds of drug trafficking...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Cedric Sewell, 51, of Stockton, pleaded guilty today to possession with intent to distribute heroin, possession with intent to distribute cocaine, possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking offense, and being a felon in possession of a firearm. According to court documents, on March...

SAN DIEGO - This morning, the DEA San Diego Field Division’s Narcotics Task (NTF) along with the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department and Health Advocates Rejecting Marijuana, (HARM) announce the total amount of illegal marijuana plants seized in San Diego County in 2014. During calendar year 2014, NTF and our...

SAN DIEGO - Del Mar physician William Joseph Watson today became the first doctor in the Southern District of California in recent history to be sentenced to federal prison for prescribing thousands of Oxycodone pills and other highly addictive painkillers without any legitimate medical purpose. U.S. District Judge James M...

FRESNO, Calif. - Miguel Leontapia, 33, and Gilberto Chavez Leon, age 29, both Delhi residents, pleaded guilty Monday to conduct relating to a scheme to send methamphetamine to Hawaii. Leontapia pleaded guilty to possession of methamphetamine with the intent to distribute and Leon pleaded guilty to conspiracy to bulk smuggle...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Michael Lott, 39, of Vallejo, was sentenced to 14 years in prison yesterday after entering guilty pleas to drug trafficking charges in a wide-ranging conspiracy to distribute MDMA and crack cocaine. In imposing sentence, Chief United States District Judge Morrison C. England, Jr. said the defendant was...

FRESNO, Calif. - Eduardo Zazueta Garcia, 28, of Delhi, pleaded guilty today to possession of methamphetamine with the intent to distribute. According to court documents, in August 2012, Garcia and his co-defendants obtained approximately three pounds of methamphetamine and attempted to ship it to Hawaii. Instead, law enforcement seized that...