Note: Relevant court documents can be found here. Today, the Department of Justice, through the Joint Criminal Opioid and Darknet Enforcement (JCODE) team, joined Europol to announce the results of Operation TorNado: a coordinated, multi‑agency and international law enforcement effort targeting criminal enterprises that use Dark Web markets to traffic...

ALBUQUERQUE – Five defendants face federal charges alleging they used the U.S. mail, interstate travel, and electronic financial transactions to facilitate a large-scale methamphetamine and fentanyl distribution operation spanning New Mexico, Arizona, and California. According to court documents, Cesar Antonio Huerta, 28, is alleged to have led a Hobbs, New...

WASHINGTON - Fifteen defendants are charged in a twelve-count superseding indictment unsealed today in U.S. District Court in connection with a sprawling, transnational drug trafficking organization that imported massive quantities of methamphetamine from California and gamma-butyrolactone (GBL) from South Korea for distribution in Washington, D.C., and elsewhere along the East...

Sacramento, Calif.— The Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office, in partnership with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California; U.S. Department of Justice, Drug Enforcement Administration, San Francisco Field Division’s Sacramento District Office; Federal Bureau of Investigation, Sacramento Field Office; Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office; Sacramento Police Department; Central...

LOS ANGELES – Law enforcement today arrested 23 defendants out of a total of 28 individuals, including residents of West Covina and Studio City, charged in federal criminal complaints with trafficking drugs, including fentanyl and methamphetamine, in and around the Skid Row neighborhood of downtown Los Angeles, an area notorious...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Ong Thao, 37, of Lodi, was sentenced Tuesday by U.S. District Judge John A. Mendez to eight years in prison for conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine, heroin, and fentanyl, U.S. Attorney Eric Grant and Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent in Charge...

WICHITA, KAN. – A Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) operation led to the dismantling of a drug trafficking ring in Kansas operated on behalf of a Mexican drug cartel. Ringleader, Euriel Talavera, 32, of Wichita and 14 other defendants pleaded guilty to criminal charges following a multi-agency investigation which included...

FRESNO, Calif. — Three individuals were charged today following a multi‑agency investigation that dismantled a clandestine methamphetamine conversion laboratory in Terra Bella, U.S. Attorney Eric Grant and Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent in Charge Bob P. Beris announced. Jose Diarte-Perez, 46, and Carlos Beltran-Ochoa, 27, both from Mexico and illegally...

CLEVELAND – Hundreds of individuals were apprehended and taken into custody throughout northern Ohio as part of a multi-agency strategic initiative to combat violent crime. The DEA Detroit Field Division was part of a multi-jurisdictional sweep across eight cities, known as Operation Northern Shield, was coordinated among federal, state, and...

OAKLAND – The government of Mexico recently deported Julio Palafox, a United States citizen, to the United States where he was arrested by the United States Marshals on a warrant to appear on charges stemming from his alleged involvement in the distribution of methamphetamine in the Bay Area. U.S. Marshals...