SAN DIEGO – Four indictments were unsealed in federal court charging 16 individuals throughout San Diego County with distributing large quantities of methamphetamine, fentanyl and heroin and laundering drug-trafficking proceeds. In a coordinated takedown yesterday, more than 115 federal, state and local law enforcement officials arrested 10 defendants and executed...

EL PASO – For the first time in its history, the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) El Paso Division will be led by an El Pasoan. Omar Arellano, who graduated from Del Valle High and the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), is the new Special Agent in Charge (SAC)...

ALBUQUERQUE – An Arizona man was sentenced to 14 years in prison for drug trafficking and firearms offenses following his arrest at a U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint in New Mexico in 2023. There is no parole in the federal system. According to court documents, on April 27, 2023, David Maldonado...

SAN DIEGO – Marcus Ray Chavez was sentenced in federal court today to 262 months in prison for providing the fentanyl pills that resulted in the fatal overdose of a 15-year-old girl in 2022. According to court documents, on at least four occasions between September and November 2022, Chavez provided...

EL PASO, Texas – An El Paso man was sentenced in a federal court to 180 months in prison for trafficking fentanyl and other illicit drugs. According to court documents, Victor Arellano, 40, delivered 1,000 fentanyl pills to an undercover agent in exchange for $1,500 on or about Nov. 28...

EL PASO, Texas – A high-ranking member of the Sinaloa Cartel was extradited from Mexico to El Paso, indicted for criminal charges related to his alleged federal racketeering, narcotics, money laundering, firearms, and continuing criminal enterprise offenses. According to court documents, Daniel Franco Lopez aka “Micha” aka “Neon” aka “Fer,”...

Note: View the Plea Agreement ALBUQUERQUE – An El Paso man pleaded guilty to federal drug trafficking charges after fleeing a Border Patrol checkpoint in Otero County, leading to a high-speed chase that ended in a head-on collision with a motorcyclist and the discovery of nearly 10 kilograms of pure...

SAN DIEGO – Edgar Perez Villa, an alleged member of a Tijuana-based enforcement group for the Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación, commonly known as CJNG, was extradited from Mexico to the United States on Thursday and made his first appearance in federal court in San Diego today. Perez Villa was...

SAN DIEGO – U.S. District Court Judge Todd Robinson sentenced Lucresia Stone-Rojas of San Diego today to 86 months in prison for being a felon in possession of a firearm on November 12, 2023, and possession with intent to distribute heroin on December 27, 2023. Stone-Rojas previously pleaded guilty in...

MIDLAND, Texas – A Mexican national unlawfully residing in Texas was sentenced Thursday to life in federal prison for his criminal actions as the leader of a drug trafficking organization tied to a Mexican cartel. According to court documents, Jose Ramon Castillo-Lopez aka “Pepo,” 30, of Namiquipa, Chihuahua, Mexico, supplied...