United States Drug Enforcement Administration

OKLAHOMA CITY, OK – A three-year investigation into an Oklahoma prison-based drug trafficking organization has resulted in 21 defendants being convicted across multiple federal cases. The wrap-up of this investigation and prosecution is jointly announced by Robert J. Troester, United States Attorney, Eduardo A. Chávez, DEA Special Agent in Charge...

LOS ANGELES - The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Los Angeles Field Division High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) Group 48, seized approximately 1 million fake pills containing fentanyl in Inglewood, Calif. earlier this month. This record-breaking bust is the largest seizure of fentanyl pills DEA has made in California...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A federal grand jury returned a one-count indictment today against Stockton residents Jose Curiel, 35, and Roberto Tostado-Cadenas, 43, charging them with conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine, U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert announced. According to court documents, Curiel and Cadenas arranged to...

FRESNO, Calif. — A federal grand jury returned a two-count indictment today against Hugo Vigil Villagomez, 42, of Oakdale, and Serafin Villagomez Vigil, 27, of Riverbank, charging them with possessing and conspiring to possess with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of methamphetamine, U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert and...

BRUNSWICK, GA – A newly unsealed federal indictment charges 14 defendants in a South Georgia drug trafficking conspiracy alleged to have been directed from inside a Georgia state prison. The indictment in Operation Pope’s G.O.A.L., an Organized Crime Drug Trafficking Task Force investigation, alleges the drug trafficking conspiracy distributed methamphetamine...

BUFFALO, NY - United States Attorney for the Western District of New York Trini E. Ross announced today that Steven Gonzalez aka Steven Hernandez, aka Steve, aka Stevie, aka Unc, 46, of Buffalo, NY, pleaded guilty before United States District Judge Richard J. Arcara to narcotics conspiracy. The charge carries...

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – A Fairfax, Virginia man was sentenced today to 52 months for conspiring to distribute between 15 and 45 kilograms of pills containing methamphetamine via the darknet. According to court documents, from about May 2019 through December 2019, Tyler Pham, 39, conspired to distribute peach tablets advertised as...

Salisbury, Md., -- Eric Holbrook, age 41, of Fruitland, Maryland, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court on June 27, 2022, to possession with intent to distribute narcotics and was sentenced to six years imprisonment. According to his guilty plea, during January and February 2020, Holbrook engaged in the distribution of...

NEW YORK CITY – Two men from Southern California were arrested in Manhattan over the past week in connection with the transportation of large-scale shipments of crystal methamphetamine to New York. Two loads totaling approximately 75 kilograms (165 pounds), with a street value of $1.2 million, were intercepted during a...

Greenbelt, Md – U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis sentenced Darick Knighton, age 44, of Alexandria, Virginia, to five years in federal prison, followed by four years of supervised release, for conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute a controlled substance and distribution of a controlled substance. The sentence...