United States Drug Enforcement Administration

DENVER – Howard Weiss of Greenwood Village was sentenced to six months in federal prison for distributing a controlled substance outside the usual course of professional practice, for structuring financial transactions in a way to evade reporting requirements, and for engaging in monetary transactions greater than $10,000 that were derived...

Greenbelt, Maryland - U.S. District Judge Peter J. Messitte approved the United States’ consent decree with Abtin Youssefi-Rashti, a Montgomery County based pharmacist, and Upton Care Pharmacy, Inc. (“Upton Care”), resolving the United States’ civil allegations that Youssefi-Rashti and Upton Care violated the Controlled Substances Act (“CSA”) in illegally dispensing...

DALLAS, TX – A Dallas man has been sentenced to 14 years in federal prison for drug trafficking violations related to a 2021 overdose death, announced Special Agent in Charge Eduardo A. Chávez today. Robel Habtemariam, 20, pleaded guilty to possession with intent to manufacture and deliver fentanyl and was...

RALEIGH, N.C. – A former Fuquay-Varina nurse was sentenced today to 48 months in prison and three years of supervised release for tampering with painkillers intended for surgery patients. On March 9, 2022, Melissa Elizabeth Chacona pled guilty to the charges. “Surgical patients trust healthcare providers to give them the...

BUFFALO, N.Y. - U.S. Attorney Trini E. Ross announced today that Orlando Albert-Arroyo, 28, of Buffalo, NY, who was convicted of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute, and to distribute, heroin, was sentenced to serve 144 months in prison by Chief U.S. District Judge Elizabeth A. Wolford. Assistant U.S...

MILWAUKEE - John J. McGarry, Assistant Special Agent in Charge of U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration-Milwaukee, and U.S. Attorney Gregory J. Haanstad for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, announced that on May 12, 2023, Michele Nickels. was sentenced to12 months and one day of imprisonment, to be followed by two years...

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Henry E. Autrey on Wednesday sentenced a man who provided the drugs that caused one fatal and two nonfatal overdoses in St. Charles, Missouri, to 35 years in prison. Ledra A. Craig, 46, of Wright City, Mo., was also ordered to pay $8,544 for...

WASHINGTON – Today, ahead of the expiration of the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE), the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) issued the “Temporary Extension of COVID-19 Telemedicine Flexibilities for Prescription of Controlled Medications” – a temporary rule that extends telemedicine flexibilities...

ST. LOUIS – A jury in U.S. District Court in St. Louis on Thursday found a convicted felon guilty of selling the heroin and fentanyl that killed a Florissant, Missouri, man in 2018. The jury found Wyland Kinney, 43, of St. Louis County, guilty of four felony counts: distribution of...

BUFFALO, NY - U.S. Attorney Trini E. Ross and Frank A. Tarentino III, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), New York Division announced that John Wallace Buchanan, 36, of Fredonia, NY, was arrested and charged by criminal complaint with distribution of fentanyl causing death, narcotics...