SAN DIEGO - Twelve suspected members of a methamphetamine and cocaine trafficking ring were arrested early Wednesday and today at the culmination of a yearlong investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Major Mexican Traffickers’ Strike Force. All but two of the defendants appeared in federal court this afternoon...

RIVERSIDE, Calif. - The leader of a drug trafficking organization based in the Inland Empire was sentenced today to 168 months of imprisonment by United States District Judge Virginia A. Phillips. Salvador Gonzalez-Chavez, 32, Fontana, was convicted last September of conspiracy to distribute, and possess with intent to distribute, heroin...

- SAN DIEGO - A man who created two medical marijuana dispensaries and a phony board of directors as a front for a multimillion-dollar drug trafficking operation was sentenced today to serve 100 months in federal prison. The defendant was immediately remanded into custody. Joshua John Hester of San Diego...

JAN 15 - LOS ANGELES - A “keyholder” who oversaw the criminal activities of the Azusa 13 street gang and its long-running plot to violate the civil rights of African-Americans in the City of Azusa was sentenced to 235 months in federal prison. Santiago Rios, also known as “Chico,” 48...

SAN DIEGO - On December 13, 2012, San Diego Drug Enforcement Administration Acting Special Agent in Charge William R. Sherman and San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis announced the results of a 21-month operation, dubbed Operation Knight Stalker, which targeted legacy members of the La Familia Michoacá(LFM) drug cartel...

DEC 6 - LOS ANGELES - Law enforcement authorities this morning arrested 18 defendants named in three federal grand jury indictments stemming from Operation Roman Empire, a 2½-year investigation into South Los Angeles street gangs allegedly controlled by a Mexican Mafia member who directs criminal activities through his daughter. A...

CINCINNATI - Nancy Sadler, 49, of West Portsmouth, Ohio was sentenced to 210 months in federal prison for operating Ohio Medical and Pain Management, LLC, a “pill mill” in Waverly, Ohio. Her husband, Lester, aka “Ape”, Sadler, 56, was sentenced to 151 months in prison followed by three years of...

SAN DIEGO - This morning, the Drug Enforcement (DEA) San Diego Field Division’s Narcotics Task (NTF) along with the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department and Health Advocates Rejecting Marijuana, (HARM) announce the total amount of illegal marijuana plants seized in San Diego County in 2012. During calendar year 2012, NTF...

SAN DIEGO - In summer of 2010, the Drug Enforcement Administration’(DEA) Narcotics Task (NTF) Team 9 was conducting routine aerial surveillance when they happened to spot a remote marijuana farm in Julian. Agents cut down the massive crop with machetes, arrested four crop tenders and found lots of items left...

LOS ANGELES - A dozen people associated with a chain of nine marijuana stores that operated across Orange and Los Angeles counties were arrested this morning on federal drug trafficking charges. The 12 arrested are among 14 people named in a 14-count indictment returned last week by a federal grand...