NEW ORLEANS - Today, at a press conference, Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco and DEA Administrator Anne Milgram announced a significant law enforcement surge to protect American communities from the flood of fentanyl and fentanyl-laced pills across the United States. Illicit fentanyl, a synthetic opioid found in most of...

NEW ORLEANS – DEA is alerting all citizens to an increase in drug overdose deaths tied to counterfeit pills containing the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl. Manufactured by Mexican drug trafficking (DTOs), and marketed as a medication such as oxycodone on the illicit drug market, these pills can be deadly. One...

DENVER – The Denver Field Division of the Drug Enforcement Administration in partnership with Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, Arvada Police Department, and the 17th Judicial District Attorney’s Office, today announced the dismantling of an international drug trafficking ring and a related money laundering enterprise operating throughout Colorado. The investigation...

MISSOULA, Colo. – The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes’ Pharmacy and the U.S. Attorney’s Office have reached an agreement settling alleged pharmacy violations in which the pharmacy will pay a $95,520 civil penalty and take other steps to ensure compliance with federal law and U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration regulations, U.S...

CHEYENNE, Wyo. - On April 13, 2018, the Dayton, Ohio Drug Enforcement Administration Office contacted the Cheyenne Resident Office regarding a vehicle traveling through Wyoming from California, suspected of transporting a large quantity of narcotics. DEA's Cheyenne Resident Office, working with state and local counterparts, located the vehicle in Laramie...

MONTGOMERY, Ala. – On Monday, Oct. 29, 2018, a federal jury convicted nurse practitioner Lilian Ifeoma Akwuba, 39, of Montgomery, Alabama, on 17 counts of unlawfully distributing controlled substances, 4 counts of health care fraud, 1 count of conspiring to distribute controlled substances, and 1 count of conspiring to commit...

MONTGOMERY, Ala. – Jessie Acosta, 41, of San Pedro, California, was sentenced to more than 12 years (150 months) in prison for his role in a conspiracy to distribute kilogram quantities of cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana throughout the Middle District of Alabama and Georgia, announced U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Assistant...

NEW ORLEANS – Eight New Orleans-area defendants have pleaded guilty for their participation in a conspiracy to obtain oxycodone through fraud by using fictitious prescriptions. Six of the eight defendants have also pleaded guilty for their roles in a scheme to possess with intent to distribute oxycodone on the black...

DENVER – During an early raid the morning of Oct. 18, 2018, more than 100 law enforcement officers arrested members of two separate but related drug trafficking organizations, U.S. Attorney Bob Troyer, FBI Denver Division Acting Special Agent in Charge Janeen Diguiseppi, DEA Denver Division Special Agent in Charge Tim...

MISSOULA, Mont., - Salomon Mejia Preciado, a 36-year-old resident of Yakima, Washington, was sentenced today to 151 months in prison to be followed by 5 years of supervised release. Preciado pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine. Preciado is a former federal felon and was prosecuted in the Eastern District...