PHOENIX - U.S. Drug Enforcement (DEA) Special Agent in Charge Doug Coleman will announce tomorrow in a press conference the details of a new initiative to help stem the tide of prescription drug abuse in the state. The lucrative illegal prescription drug market and relative ease of which pharmaceutical substances...

PHOENIX - Drug Enforcement (DEA) Special Agent in Charge Doug Coleman announced that on Oct. 6, 2014, Everardo Duarte, 38, of Sonora, Mexico, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge G. Murray Snow to 12 years imprisonment. Duarte pleaded guilty on July 21, 2014 to possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine...

PHOENIX - On Sept. 25, 2014, the final defendant was sentenced in connection with Operation Push the Pawn - an investigation of a Phoenix area drug rip crew conducted by the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Internal Revenue Service and the Phoenix Police Department...

PHOENIX - This Saturday, September 27, the Drug Enforcement (DEA) and over 65 law enforcement partners will hold the ninth Prescription Drug Take-Back Day. Arizonans can take their expired, unneeded, or unwanted prescription drugs to one of over 90 collection sites across Arizona between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. The...

EL PASO, Texas - Twenty-three individuals have been arrested in El Paso for prescription fraud-related offenses, announced Special Agent in Charge Will R. Glaspy of the Drug Enforcement Administration’(DEA) El Paso Field Division, Regional Commander Carey Matthews of the Texas Department of Public (DPS) and 34th Judicial District (DA) Jaime...

EL PASO, Texas - In El Paso, 29-year-old Rigoberto Ruiz-Alatorre, an admitted drug trafficker and former bodyguard for Sinaloa narcotrafficker Gabino Salas-(aka “El Ingeniero”), was sentenced to 28 years in federal prison and fined $5,000 for murdering a member of his drug trafficking organization announced United States Attorney Robert Pitman...

PHOENIX - On Aug. 18, 2014, Luis Enrique Villegas-Lugo, 40, of Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico was sentenced by Senior U.S. District Judge Roslyn O. Silverto 17.5 years in prison. Villegas-Lugo pleaded guilty on Feb. 25, 2014 to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of methamphetamine, a...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - Melchor Arroyos, 53, of El Paso, Texas, was sentenced this morning in federal court in Las Cruces, N.M., to 120 months in federal prison followed by five years of supervised release for his methamphetamine trafficking conviction. The sentence was announced by U.S. Attorney Damon P. Martinez, Special...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - A federal jury returned a verdict earlier today finding Miguel Bustamante-Conchas, 39, a Mexican national with legal permanent resident status in the United States, guilty on heroin trafficking charges after a six-day trial, announced U.S. Attorney Damon P. Martinez and Special Agent in Charge Will R. Glaspy...

ALBUQUERQUE - Phillip Larez, 33, of Carlsbad, N.M., entered a guilty plea this afternoon in Las Cruces federal court to a distribution of a controlled substance analogue charge. Under the terms of his plea agreement, Larez will be sentenced to a year of probation. Larez and his co-defendants, Garlan R...