DEA Archived Press Releases

Press Releases before January 20, 2025
2344 Results - Showing 2001 to 2010
PRESS RELEASE

Western New York to Puerto Rico drug trafficking network dismantled

BUFFALO, N.Y. – DEA New York Division Special Agent in Charge Ray Donovan and United States Attorney James Kennedy, Jr., announced today that eight defendants have been arrested and charged with conspiracy to distribute cocaine, heroin and fentanyl which carries a mandatory minimum penalty of 10 years in prison, a...
PRESS RELEASE

Twelve men charged in Syracuse-based heroin/fentanyl trafficking conspiracy

SYRACUSE, N.Y. – A federal grand jury has indicted 12 members of a Syracuse-based drug trafficking organization that distributed more than two kilograms of heroin and mixtures of heroin and fentanyl, announced DEA New York Division Special Agent in Charge Ray Donovan and United States Attorney Grant C. Jaquith. “DEA’s...
PRESS RELEASE

Winter Garden convicted felon pleads guilty

ORLANDO, Fla. – Kenneth Bernard Smith, 54, of Winter Garden, Fla., pleaded guilty today to two counts of possessing ammunition and a firearm as a convicted felon and two counts of distributing cocaine and heroin. He faces a mandatory minimum penalty of 15 years, and up to life, in federal...
PRESS RELEASE

Second hash oil extraction laboratory explosion in San Diego County within two week period

EL CAJON, Calif. – Yesterday, DEA’s Narcotic Task Force (NTF) responded to a hash oil extraction laboratory explosion in the city of El Cajon. This explosion occurred less than two weeks after the significant hash oil extraction laboratory explosion in the Mira Mesa area of San Diego, which sent three...
PRESS RELEASE

NTF dismantles butane hash oil extraction lab 15 times larger than lab that caused recent explosion

WARNER SPRINGS, Calif. – Yesterday the DEA’s Narcotic Task Force executed a state search warrant at 30570 Chihuahua Valley Road, Warner Springs, Calif. Agents uncovered a sophisticated butane hash oil extraction lab inside three trailers on the property. In addition to extracting hash oil, the lab operators were also refining...
PRESS RELEASE

Houston Man Sentenced for Federal Drug Trafficking and Money Laundering Violations

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...
PRESS RELEASE

California man sentenced to 7 years in federal prison for fentanyl trafficking offenses

HARTFORD, Conn. – DEA New England Division Special Agent in Charge Brian D. Boyle and Connecticut United States Attorney John H. Durham announced that Omar Villarreal, 27, of La Puente, California, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Alvin W. Thompson in Hartford to 84 months of imprisonment, followed by...
PRESS RELEASE

Major financial sanctions announced against Mexico’s largest drug cartel investigated by DEA Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES – DEA’s Los Angeles Division continues to lead the global investigation into Mexico’s most violent and largest drug cartel, the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG) and it’s leader Nemesio Oseguera-Cervantes, aka "El Mencho." DEA Los Angeles Division indicted El Mencho on federal drug trafficking charges in 2014...
PRESS RELEASE

Stockton counterfeit pill manufacturing ring dismantled

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents dismantled an alleged Stockton-based counterfeit pill manufacturing ring and arrested six individuals as a result of the investigation, announced DEA Special Agent in Charge Chris Nielsen. According to court documents, the DEA Sacramento District Office began this investigation in April 2016, when...
PRESS RELEASE

Moses Lake man sentenced to over 12 years in federal prison for conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine

SPOKANE, Wash. – Loren John Jay Meade, age 32, of Moses Lake, Washington, was sentenced today after having pleaded guilty on October 2, 2018, to conspiracy to distribute 50 or more grams of actual methamphetamine. Chief United States District Judge Thomas O. Rice sentenced Meade to a 12 year and...