NEW ORLEANS – Today, Attorney General William P. Barr and Drug Enforcement Administration Acting Administrator Timothy J. Shea announced the results of Operation Crystal Shield, DEA’s six-month-long effort targeting the command and control elements of Mexican cartels that operate major methamphetamine “transportation hubs” in the United States. At a press...

SIERRA VISTA, Ariz. – Attorney General Mark Brnovich announced a Cochise County superior court judge sentenced Timothy Henry, a Sierra Vista drug distributor, to 14 years in prison. Henry’s co-defendants, Jaime Rene Leza, Jennifer Sue Phillips, and Shalmarie Tulk, were all previously convicted and sentenced for their role assisting Henry...

WASHINGTON – Drug Enforcement Administration Acting Administrator Uttam Dhillon today announced that the DEA will direct enforcement resources to methamphetamine “transportation hubs” — areas where methamphetamine is often trafficked in bulk and then distributed across the country. While continuing to focus on stopping drugs being smuggled across the border, DEA’s...

TUCSON, Ariz. – The Drug Enforcement Administration announced today the arrest of 11 people as the result of the culmination of a year-long joint investigation by the DEA’s Sierra Vista Resident Office along with the Arizona Department of Public Safety’s Border Strike Force, into the alleged drug trafficking activities of...

PHOENIX – During an investigation into the drug trafficking activities of 24-year old Marcelino Ontiveros Quintero, DEA Task Force agents and detectives seized approximately 169,150 lethal fentanyl pills from Quintero and his associate, one of the largest fentanyl pill seizures in the state. The DEA Task Force, led by a...

BATON ROUGE, La. – The Drug Enforcement Administration yesterday announced that a member of a large drug trafficking organization was sentenced. Byron A. Lawson, age 40, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was sentenced as part of Operation Hidden Fee, an extensive federal, state, and local investigation by the Middle District Organized...

PHOENIX - On December 19, 2012, Doug Coleman, Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement (DEA) Phoenix Field Division and U.S. Attorney John S. Leonardo announced that Francisco Alfredo Montes-Vargas, of Culiacan, Mexico, was sentenced to 292 months in federal prison, to be followed by five years of supervised...

PHOENIX - On April 25, 2012, a federal grand jury in Phoenix returned a 76 count superseding indictment against 11 defendants charging them with multiple crimes including conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute marijuana, structuring financial transactions through a domestic financial institution and promotional money laundering. The defendants are...

DEC 18 -- (Little Rock, Ark.) - Beginning in April 2012, the DEA Little Rock Tactical Diversion (TDS) began receiving information from various pharmacies in the Central Arkansas area regarding call-in and facsimile prescriptions written in the name of James Derek Johnston. Johnston, who is a Certified Public Accountant, was...

FORT SMITH, Ark. - Today Sheila Hayes, 39, William Hayes, 35, Daniel Lawson, 24, and Jesus Ordaz, 25, all of Fort Smith, Arkansas, were sentenced to a combined 61 years imprisonment for the distribution of methamphetamine. The sentences are the result of an investigation into a drug trafficking organization operating...