CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Chief U.S. District Judge Frank D. Whitney sentenced Alberto Gasca, 31, of Los Angeles, California, to serve 128 months in prison and five years of supervised release on drug trafficking charges, announced Jill Westmoreland Rose, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina. Gasca pleaded guilty...

GREENEVILLE, Tenn. - Joshua Brandon Hinkle, 30, of Chuckey, Tenn., was sentenced on Oct. 20, 2015, by the Honorable R. Leon Jordan, U.S. District Court Judge, to serve 110 months in federal prison for his role in an extensive a-(alpha-pyrrolidinopentiophenone) distribution conspiracy centered in northeast Tennessee, southwest Virginia and western...

LOS ANGELES - Investigations led by the Drug Enforcement Administration and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations in the Los Angeles area have resulted in the arrest of over a dozen defendants allegedly involved in the large-scale manufacture and distribution of synthetic drugs that are commonly called “spice.”...

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - Heather Morgan, 28, of Maryville, Tenn., was sentenced to serve 18 months in federal prison by the Honorable Thomas A. Varlan, Chief U.S. District Judge on Oct. 13. Upon her release from prison, Morgan will serve a two year period of supervised release. Morgan pleaded guilty to...

LAS VEGAS - Federal charges have been filed against four men and one woman alleging they are part of a large-scale heroin trafficking organization that operated in the Las Vegas area since December 2014, announced U.S. Attorney Daniel G. Bogden for the District of Nevada. Juan Almeda-Vazquez, 27, Maria Landin-Hernandez...

GREENEVILLE, Tenn. - Daniel Martinez, Jr., 39, of Morristown, Tenn., was sentenced to serve 15 years in federal prison by the Honorable R. Leon Jordan, U.S. District Judge. Upon his release from prison, Martinez will serve a 10 year period of supervised release. Martinez pleaded guilty to a federal grand...

LOS ANGELES - The leader of an international money laundering organization, Gurkaran Singh Isshpunani, made his initial appearance in the Central District of California today. Isshpunani, the highest level defendant listed in a 22-person federal indictment filed in November 2014, is allegedly the leader of an international ‘hawala’ ring that...

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. - On Oct. 1, 2015, Faith Blake, 40, of Chattanooga, Tenn., was sentenced to serve 44 years in federal prison by the Honorable Curtis L. Collier, U.S. District Judge. Upon her release from prison, Blake will serve a three year period of supervised release. Additionally, she was ordered...

LOS ANGELES - Two brothers were arrested today on federal drug trafficking and money laundering charges for allegedly utilizing a bogus pharmacy to obtain and distribute large quantities of prescription narcotics, including oxycodone, to black-market customers. Berry Kabov, 44, and his brother, Dalibor Kabov, 32, are charged in a 40-count...

ROME, Ga. - James Earl Chapman, Jr., a doctor from Macon, Georgia, has been convicted after a two-week jury trial on 49 counts of drug trafficking for prescribing and dispensing controlled narcotics at a Cartersville, Georgia, “pill mill” pain clinic that served as a front for the mass distribution of...