United States Drug Enforcement Administration

WASHINGTON – The operator of a network of businesses in Lebanon and Africa, whom the United States Department of the Treasury designated as a financier of Lebanon-based terrorist group Hezbollah, was sentenced to five years in prison and ordered to forfeit $50 million by U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton...

MIAMI – Alex Nain Saab Moran, 47, and Alvaro Pulido Vargas, 55, both citizens of Colombia, were each charged in an eight-count indictment returned in the Southern District of Florida with one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and seven counts of money laundering. The indictment also alleges and...

CINCINNATI – A federal grand jury has charged a pharmaceutical distributor, two of its former officials and two pharmacists with conspiring to distribute controlled substances in an indictment returned here yesterday. Four individuals have been charged, including Miami-Luken’s former president and compliance officer and two West Virginia pharmacists. Those charged...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Lili Bian, a 59-year old citizen of China and a lawful permanent resident of the United States living in Charlotte, appeared in federal court today and pleaded guilty to failing to report a foreign bank account with a balance exceeding $10,000, announced U.S. Attorney for the Western...

HAUPPAUGE, N.Y. – Seven people were arrested in connection with an alleged advance fee loan scheme that affected more than 35 identified victims across the country. The arrests are the result of a more than year-long investigation conducted by the District Attorney’s Office, Federal Bureau of Investigations, U.S. Drug Enforcement...

DAYTON, Ohio – A man helping orchestrate a methamphetamine, fentanyl and heroin trafficking conspiracy was sentenced in U.S. District Court today to 180 months in prison. A federal indictment unsealed in July 2018 charged Salvador Ramirez, 24, of West Chester, along with six other people with engaging in a drug...

MONTGOMERY, Ala. – On Wednesday, May 29, 2019, a Montgomery, Alabama nurse practitioner, Lilian Ifeoma Akwuba, 40, received a 10-year sentence for her part in helping run two separate “pill mill” operations in Montgomery over a four-year period, announced Assistant Special Agent in Charge Clay Morris with the Drug Enforcement...

BUFFALO, N.Y. – United States Attorney James Kennedy, Jr., and DEA New York Division Special Agent in Charge Ray Donovan announced that Calvin Elston, Jr., 41, of Buffalo, N.Y., who was convicted of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute, and to distribute, 400 grams or more of fentanyl, was...

BEAUMONT, Texas – A 41-year-old Houston man has been sentenced to federal prison for drug trafficking and money laundering violations in the Eastern District of Texas, announced Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent in Charge Will R. Glaspy and U.S. Attorney Joseph D. Brown today. John D. Leontaritis, owner and operator...

ATLANTA – Georgians participating in the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s 17th National Prescription Drug Take Back Day Initiative held on Saturday, April 27, 2019, turned in 11,114 pounds of unwanted or expired medications for safe and proper disposal at sites set up throughout the state. The amount collected was the...