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...

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...

MEDFORD, Ore.—A Josephine County, Oregon man who distributed marijuana throughout the U.S. using his private airplane, and who hired a hitman to kill a drug trafficking associate, was sentenced to federal prison today. John Tobe Larson, 71, was sentenced to 35 months in federal prison and five years of supervised...

OMAHA, Neb.–Investigators with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Omaha Division seized approximately 32,000 fake pills in Omaha, some laced with lethal doses of fentanyl, in a two-day span beginning July 8. During the first six months of 2022, DEA investigators seized approximately 151,500 pills in Nebraska, marking an 83 percent...

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...

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...

Concord, NH - Wilgfrido Valnodis Arias-Mejia, 46, a citizen of the Dominican Republic most recently residing in Manchester, was sentenced today to 91 months in federal prison for conspiring to sell fentanyl and other substances around the Manchester area, United States Attorney Jane E. Young announced. According to court documents...

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...