PHOENIX - U.S. Drug Enforcement (DEA) Special Agent in Charge Doug Coleman will announce tomorrow in a press conference the details of a new initiative to help stem the tide of prescription drug abuse in the state. The lucrative illegal prescription drug market and relative ease of which pharmaceutical substances...

PHOENIX - Drug Enforcement (DEA) Special Agent in Charge Doug Coleman announced that on Oct. 6, 2014, Everardo Duarte, 38, of Sonora, Mexico, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge G. Murray Snow to 12 years imprisonment. Duarte pleaded guilty on July 21, 2014 to possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine...

PORTLAND, Ore. - Today, in separate proceedings, Jose Antonio Soto-Vasquez, 29, and Jesus Manual Soto-Vasquez, 27, were each sentenced in U.S. District Court to ten years in prison. Earlier this year, both men pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine. Both brothers were part...

PHOENIX - On Sept. 25, 2014, the final defendant was sentenced in connection with Operation Push the Pawn - an investigation of a Phoenix area drug rip crew conducted by the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Internal Revenue Service and the Phoenix Police Department...

PHOENIX - This Saturday, September 27, the Drug Enforcement (DEA) and over 65 law enforcement partners will hold the ninth Prescription Drug Take-Back Day. Arizonans can take their expired, unneeded, or unwanted prescription drugs to one of over 90 collection sites across Arizona between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. The...

POCATELLO, Idaho - Juan Ramon Yuen-Rodriguez, 29, of Sinaloa, Mexico, was sentenced on September 15, 2014, after having previously pleaded guilty on May 24, 2014, to distribution of methamphetamine. Yuen-Rodriquez was sentenced to 210 months in prison, to be followed by five years of supervised release and a $500 fine...

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Thony Yang, 24, of Fairbanks, Alaska, was sentenced on September 22, 2014, for conspiracy to possess methamphetamine with intent to distribute. Yang was sentenced to 120 months in prison, to be followed by five years of supervised of release. On March 5, 2014, law enforcement officers identified...

TACOMA, Wash. - Arnoldo Mendoza Ramos, 28, of Tacoma, Washington, was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Tacoma to 130 months in prison for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute heroin and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking offense. Mendoza Ramos is a Mexican...

SEATTLE - A grand jury indictment was unsealed on August 27, 2014, charging three men with conspiring to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine between Las Vegas and Alaska. The indictment charges three men: Daren D. Cole, 47, Dewane E. Blue, 37, and Bryan M. Bledsoe, 36. The indictment...

PORTLAND, Ore - Marcelino Lopez-Diaz, 25, of Nayarit, Mexico, appeared on September 4, 2014, in U.S. District Court and entered guilty pleas to possession with the intent to distribute heroin in quantities of one kilogram or more and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. The...