PLANO, Texas – Two Chinese nationals have been indicted and charged with federal drug trafficking violations as part of a Homeland Security Task Force investigation in the Eastern District of Texas, announced U.S. Attorney Jay R. Combs. Lisa Xing, 36, and Zhanwen Song, 38, Chinese citizens, were charged in a...

Washington, D.C. - The leader of a Dominican Republic-based international cocaine trafficking and money laundering organization was extradited from Colombia to the United States yesterday to face drug trafficking charges filed in two separate indictments in the Districts of Puerto Rico and New Jersey as well as money laundering charges...

MIAMI – Five defendants pleaded guilty to conspiring to import thousands of kilograms of cocaine into South Florida aboard sport fishing vessels from the Dominican Republic. According to court records, Andy Gabriel Mercedes-Hernandez, 32; Jesus Alberto Salcedo-Perez, 32; Keisy Estibet Peguero, 38; Enmanuel Amauris Rivera-Cabrera, 32; and Mario Joel Rijo-Jimenez...

WASHINGTON – Ecuadorian authorities, supported by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), conducted a series of coordinated enforcement operations today targeting transnational criminal organizations involved in international cocaine trafficking. The Ecuadorian National Police conducted simultaneous operations at multiple locations across Ecuador following a years-long investigation. The...

Washington, D.C. - A federal grand jury in the District of Columbia returned an indictment today charging Ramon Alvarez Ayala, 44, and Rafael Alvarez Ayala, 42, both Mexican nationals, with conspiracy to distribute cocaine and methamphetamine for importation into the United States and possessing a firearm, including a machinegun, in...

MIAMI – Ten defendants have been sentenced to federal prison for their roles in a South Florida cocaine trafficking conspiracy that involved cocaine supplied by a Mexican drug cartel and others. U.S. District Judge Darrin P. Gayles sentenced Reinaldo Fernandez, 63, to 188 months in federal prison; Javier Garcia-Mora, 40...

Jacksonville, Fla. – United States Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe announces the unsealing of an Indictment charging 13 defendants—all alleged members and associates of the Slime gang—with crimes including racketeering conspiracy, drug trafficking conspiracy, murder-for-hire, conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire, and retaliating against a witness. Slime was primarily active in the Northside...

Pensacola, Fla. – Arzalea Teshean McLaughlin, 37, Benjamin Eugene Mack, 54, and Roger Cornell Daniels, 38, all of Crestview, Florida, pleaded guilty in federal court to charges of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine and cocaine base, conspiracy to unlawfully use...

Pensacola, Florida – Jovon “Playa Pat” Booker, 33, of Pensacola, Florida, was convicted by a jury in federal court on one count of discharging a handgun in relation to a drug trafficking crime, and a separate count of possessing firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. Prior to the...

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today the Department of Justice, in coordination with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and National Coordination Center (NCC) announced new charges...