SAN DIEGO – DEA Acting Administrator Uttam Dhillon today announced the publication of the 2019 National Drug Threat Assessment, which outlines the threats posed to the United States by domestic and international drug trafficking and the abuse of illicit drugs. “This year’s report illustrates a shifting drug landscape in the...

SAN DIEGO – After a challenging multi-year, inter-agency investigation, utilizing technology capabilities, intelligence gathering, and community outreach, law enforcement partners on the San Diego Tunnel Task Force have exposed the longest illicit cross-border tunnel ever discovered along the Southwest border. The tunnel originates in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico in an...

SEATTLE – A repeat offender, who was arrested in Pioneer Square armed with a concealed pistol with hollow point bullets, was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Seattle to 101 months in prison and five years of supervised release. Jonathan Rushing, 40, was convicted in October 2019 following a...

PORTLAND, Ore . – Darlene Michelle Sturdevant, 61, of Vancouver, Wash., was sentenced today to 14 years in federal prison and five years’ supervised release for conspiring to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine and heroin throughout the Portland metropolitan area, possessing with intent to distribute heroin, and committing an...

SAN DIEGO – Egisto Salerno, a medical doctor practicing in San Diego, pleaded guilty to opioid distribution in federal court today, admitting that he signed bogus prescriptions for multiple deceased or incarcerated patients. According to his plea agreement, Salerno, 75, illegally distributed 78,544 hydrocodone pills. Hydrocodone is an opioid pain...

SEATTLE -- A Skagit County resident who operated businesses in Burlington and Sedro Woolley, Washington was sentenced on Jan. 17, 2020, in U.S. District Court in Tacoma to 18 months in prison for his role in knowingly laundering cash drug proceeds for a drug cartel. Orlando Barajas, 41, owns and...

SEATTLE – Matthew Sean Bremond, 32, of Soldotna, Alaska, was sentenced yesterday by Sr. U.S. District Judge Ralph R. Beistline, to serve nine years in federal prison, followed by five years of supervised release, for distributing large quantities of heroin throughout the Kenai Peninsula. In September 2019, Bremond pleaded guilty...

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Gian Carlo Clemente Pangilinan, 23, of Anchorage, was found guilty on Jan. 10, 2019, after a three-day federal jury trial. The jury found Pangilinan guilty of one count of possession of more than 50 grams of methamphetamine with the intent to distribute. According to evidence presented at...

PORTLAND, Ore. - Jody Tremayne Wafer, 30, of Houston, Texas, was sentenced today to 84 months in federal prison and three years’ supervised release for organizing and leading a conspiracy to traffic marijuana grown in Portland to Texas. According to court documents, drug proceeds, in the form of bulk U.S...

SAN DIEGO – Orlando Balderas Guerrero, of Menifee, Calif., was sentenced in federal court today to 10 years in custody for participating in a conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine. According to his plea agreement, Guerrero admitted that for a one-year period, he obtained bulk methamphetamine from a broker in Mexico and...