United States Drug Enforcement Administration

LOS ANGELES – A Santa Clarita man has been arraigned on an indictment alleging he distributed protonitazene – a novel synthetic opioid that is up to three times more powerful than fentanyl – which resulted in a victim’s fatal overdose this spring, the Justice Department announced today. Benjamin Anthony Collins...

ALBUQUERQUE – This week, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), and the U.S. Marshal Service, the Las Cruces Police Department, and the Doña Ana Sheriff’s Office, conducted a coordinated operation to dismantle a significant drug trafficking network in Las Cruces, New Mexico. The operation targeted 15...

Baltimore, Maryland – Erek L. Barron, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland and Jarod Forget, Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) Washington Division, announced that their agencies have formed the Maryland Fatal Fentanyl Overdose Task Force (“MFFOTF”). The alarming rate of overdoses in Maryland has...

Washington, DC – As schools in the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia open their doors to students and teachers this month, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Washington Division is urging the community to have important conversations about the consequences of drug experimentation and misuse as the new school year...

Washington - The Justice Department today announced a 10-count superseding indictment charging Los Angeles-based associates of Mexico’s Sinaloa drug cartel with conspiring with money-laundering groups linked to Chinese underground banking to launder drug trafficking proceeds. During the conspiracy, more than $50 million in drug proceeds flowed between the Sinaloa Cartel...

ELIZABETH CITY , N.C. – A Tarboro man was sentenced to 96 months in prison for armed drug trafficking. On March 5, 2024, Drako Butler, age 35, pled guilty to the charges. “Narcotics, guns, and money are a recipe for disaster,” said U.S. Attorney Michael Easley. “This Tarboro drug trafficker...

POCATELLO – Dr. Gerald Knouf, a family medicine doctor formerly of Pocatello, Idaho, agreed to pay $96,000 to resolve allegations that he wrote unlawful prescriptions, prescribed dangerous combinations of drugs, and billed Medicare and Medicaid for services that were not performed, U.S. Attorney Josh Hurwit announced today. The settlement also...

Washington, DC – The Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) Washington Division, which covers the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia (DMV) confiscated more than 639,000 fentanyl pills and 189 pounds of fentanyl powder in 2023. This amount represents more than a three-fold increase in the number of fake pills laced with...

WASHINGTON – Sheldon Marbley, 44, of Washington, D.C., was sentenced today to 20 years in prison on five felony counts for running a drug trafficking operation in the Southwest section of the District that caused the deaths of two people and caused serious bodily injury to another two people. In...

MIAMI – A south Florida defendant pled guilty to participating in a conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute a synthetic opioid, protonitazene. Will Catis, Sr. (Catis), 42, of Deerfield Beach, pled guilty before U.S. District Judge Raag Singhal. According to the agreed upon factual proffer, on April 12, 2022...