SEATTLE - The man who touched off a devastating Bellevue apartment fire with his illegal hash oil manufacturing was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Seattle to nine years in prison. David Richard Schultz II, 33, was using highly explosive butane gas to make hash oil in the Hampton...

SAN ANTONIO - A former major drug trafficker in the Piedras Negras “Plaza,” 46-year-old Esiquiel (aka “Cheke”), was sentenced in San Antonio today to 420 months in federal prison for federal drug and firearm violations announced DEA Special Agent in Charge Joseph M. Arabit, Acting United States Attorney Richard Durbin...

EUGENE, Ore. - Cesar Arnoldo Menjivar, 30, of Lane County, Oregon, was sentenced on Tuesday, June 2, 2015, in U.S. District Court to a 96-month prison term for conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine. Following his release from prison, Menjivar will be on supervised release for four years. On June 3, 2015...

DEL RIO, Texas - In Del Rio yesterday, 45-year old Texas Mexican (TMM) member Jesus Meza, Jr. (aka “Jesse”) was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment followed by five years of supervised release for violating federal racketeering and drug trafficking statutes announced Acting United States Attorney Richard L. Durbin, Jr., Federal...

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Stacy Laulu, 33, of Anchorage, Alaska was sentenced to two years imprisonment in U.S. District Court on May 29, 2015, on her convictions for two felony violations of the Health Information Portability and Accountablity (HIPPA). The case represented the first felony HIPAA prosecution in Alaska, and one...

BOISE, Idaho - Ajellon Dedeaux, 27, of Rancho, California, and Andrew Colwell, 24, of Boise, Idaho, are the latest members of a large scale oxycodone and heroin distribution ring to be sentenced to federal prison. Dedeaux was sentenced on May 26, 2015, to 144 months in federal prison for distributing...

LAREDO, Texas - A total of five Laredoans have been ordered to prison for their roles in a kidnaping ordered by Los Zetas and executed by members and associates of the gang Hermanos Pistoleros (HPL), announced Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent in Charge Joseph M. Arabit, Houston Division and U.S...

BROWNSVILLE, Texas - Four people have been charged for their involvement in a drug and money laundering conspiracy, three of whom have also been designated as Specially Designated Narcotics (SDNTs), announced Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent in Charge Joseph M. Arabit, Houston Division and United States Attorney Kenneth Magidson. The...

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets (OFAC) today has designated Mexican narcotics trafficker Abel Briones Ruiz as a Specially Designated Narcotics (SDNT) pursuant to the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation (“Kingpin Act”) for providing support for the international narcotics trafficking activities of the Gulf Cartel...

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Stuart T. Seugasala, 40, of Anchorage, was sentenced on May 18, 2015, to three terms of life imprisonment following his January 2015 convictions on drug trafficking conspiracy and two kidnapping charges. The court imposed a consecutive seven year sentence on firearms violations, as well as concurrent ten...