LOS ANGELES, CA - An investigation by the San Gabriel Valley Safe Streets Task Force resulted in the arrest of 16 of 27 defendants today who face federal narcotics charges for their roles in a methamphetamine distribution network, announced representatives from the agencies who jointly conducted the investigation at a...

SEATTLE, WA - Today, the Drug Enforcement Administration sent notification letters to the operators and property owners of 23 marijuana store fronts located in school zones. The letters informed the owner/operators that such enterprises operating as “dispensaries” within 1,000 feet of a school, playground or other prohibited area could result...

LOS ANGELES - A Mexican businessman pleaded guilty today in federal court to conspiring with the owners of a Los Angeles area toy wholesaler to launder thousands of “narco dollars” for drug trafficking organizations in Mexico. Luis Ernesto Flores Rivera, 54, of Guadalajara, Mexico, faces up to 20 years in...

ANCHORAGE, AK - On June 20, 2012, Brackston Moores, 32, of Anchorage, was sentenced to 160 months in prison for conspiracy to distribute heroin. Chief United States District Judge Ralph R. Beistline imposed the sentence on Moores. According to information presented to the court, Moores conspired with Anchorage co-defendants Ryan...

BOISE, ID. - Miguel Beltran-Marquez, 35, of Caldwell, Idaho, was sentenced on June 14, 2012, to 188 months in prison for conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine. U.S. District Judge Edward J. Lodge also ordered Beltran-Marquez to serve five years of supervised release following his prison term and to pay a $1,000...

Riverside, CA - The Drug Enforcement Administration today announced that operators of an Inland Empire chain of marijuana stores and others associated with a warehouse where drugs were cultivated for the stores were arrested this morning on federal drug trafficking charges. A six-count indictment returned last week by a federal...

BOISE, ID. -- - Francisco Cardona-Rodriguez, 38, of Rio Grande City, Texas, was sentenced in federal court December 12, 2011 to 37 months in prison followed by five years of supervised release for conspiracy to manufacture/distribute 1,000 or more marijuana plants. Cardona-Rodriguez was also ordered to forfeit assets. He pled...

Seventeen San Antonio-based members of the Texas (TS) have been charged by federal grand jury indictment with conspiring to violate the Racketeering Influenced Corrupt (RICO) statute. The announcement was made today by United States Attorney Robert Pitman, DEA Special Agent in Charge Javier Pena, U.S. Marshal Robert Almonte, ATF Special...

LOS ANGELES, CA - Federal and local authorities arrested 14 defendants named in a federal indictment that alleges widespread drug trafficking activities by a Whittier-based organization and its Mexico-based suppliers of cocaine and methamphetamine on December 8. An additional five defendants named in the indictment are already in custody. Those...

PORTLAND, ORE. - Eleven members of a multi-state drug trafficking organization have been indicted on federal charges alleging a conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine. The one-count federal indictment unsealed on Wednesday by U.S. Magistrate Dennis J. Hubel charges the defendants with taking part in a conspiracy from February 2011 to the...