SAN DIEGO – Approximately 50,000 fake pills containing fentanyl were seized in a single enforcement operation in San Diego on June 28, 2022. Investigators from the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Narcotic Task Force (NTF) and the San Diego Police Department (SDPD) worked together to prevent the fake pills from being distributed...

SAN DIEGO – A two-year investigation has led to the indictment of 26 defendants for international drug smuggling, drug trafficking, and related conspiracy offenses. One of the defendants, Raul Barajas-Padilla, appeared in federal court yesterday for an initial appearance on the indictment. So far, 17 defendants have been arrested. Efforts...

SAN DIEGO – Angel Dominguez Ramirez Jr., a former U.S. Marine with dual U.S. and Mexican citizenship, was sentenced in federal court to 195 months in prison for leading an international organization that transported ton-quantities of cocaine from South America to Mexico and into the United States. Dominguez had previously...

LOS ANGELES – A Sylmar man pleaded guilty this afternoon to two federal drug trafficking offenses, one of which stemmed from a 2020 transaction in which he sold bogus oxycodone pills laced with fentanyl that caused a U.S. Marine stationed at Camp Pendleton to suffer a fatal overdose. Gustavo Jaciel...

LOS ANGELES – A San Bernardino County man was arrested today on a federal grand jury indictment that alleges he sold fentanyl to a woman last year who soon afterward suffered a fatal overdose from the powerful synthetic opioid. John Biagianti, 31, of Upland, was arrested this morning at his...

ST. PAUL, Minn. – A federal jury found a Hopkins, Minnesota man guilty of distributing controlled substances, including fentanyl, which resulted in the deaths of 11 people and caused serious bodily injury to four people, announced U.S. Attorney Andrew M. Luger. Following a 10-day jury trial, Aaron Rhy Broussard, 31...

LAS VEGAS – On Tuesday, March 22, 2022, members of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Las Vegas District Office, DEA Fresno Resident Office and the Tulare County High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA) program concluded a multiple month-long investigation of a major narcotic trafficking organization with the arrest of four...

LOS ANGELES – On March 16, 2022, members of the Ventura County Combined Agency Team (VCAT) and the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Los Angeles Field Division concluded a multiple month-long investigation of a major narcotic trafficking organization with the arrest of seven suspects and the seizure of a...

SAN DIEGO – A federal grand jury indictment was unsealed in San Diego today against Guatemalan national Axel Bladimir Montejo Saenz, aka “Mosh,” aka “Kraken.” The indictment returned on November 1, 2018, charges Montejo Saenz with Conspiracy to Distribute Cocaine Intended for Unlawful Importation and Conspiracy to Distribute Cocaine on...

SAN DIEGO – Brayan Alberto Rodriguez-Alcala, an alleged Sinaloa Cartel drug trafficker, was extradited to the United States from Ecuador today. On October 19, 2021, a federal grand jury sitting in the Southern District of California returned an indictment charging Rodriguez-Alcala with participating in a long-running worldwide conspiracy to traffic...