RICHMOND, Va. – A Guatemalan national was sentenced today to 172 months in prison for his role as a maritime transportation manager in a large-scale Guatemalan drug trafficking organization (DTO). According to court documents, beginning in 2016, Amilcar Chavez-Barrera, 42, conspired to distribute over 1,000 kilograms of cocaine for distribution...

Greenbelt, Md., – A federal jury convicted El Salvadorian nationals Junior Noe Alvarado-Requeno, a/k/a “Insolente” and “Trankilo,” age 24, of Landover, Maryland, and Miguel Angel Corea Diaz, a/k/a “Reaper,” age 41, of Long Branch, New Jersey yesterday for conspiring to participate in La Mara Salvatrucha, a transnational criminal enterprise also...

TAMPA, Fla. – Karin Hoppmann, Acting United States (U.S.) Attorney for the Middle District of Florida, announced the unsealing of a 2019 indictment charging Piero Antonio Lubo-Barros, a/k/a “Nostradamus,” (41, Colombia, South America) with conspiracy to distribute large amounts of cocaine knowing and intending it to be imported into the...

BROOKLYN, N.Y. -- Fabian Emilio Zapata Taborda, also known as “Milo” and “Milito,” was arraigned today before United States District Judge Kiyo A. Matsumoto at the federal courthouse in Brooklyn on an indictment charging him with leading an international cocaine distribution conspiracy. The defendant, a Colombian citizen, was arrested in...

Washington, D.C. - A Mexican national was extradited from Brazil to the United States on Nov. 10 to face international drug trafficking charges. Jose Gonzalez-Valencia, aka Jafett Arias-Becerra, aka La Chepa, aka Camaron, and aka Santy, 46, arrived in the United States on Wednesday and made his initial court appearance...

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, John J. Durham, Director of Joint Task Force Vulcan (“JTFV”), Anne Milgram, Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration (“DEA”), Jay Greenberg, Acting Assistant Director of the Criminal Investigative Division of the Federal Bureau of...

NEW YORK – Earlier today, in federal court in Brooklyn, Daniel Rendon Herrera, also known as “Don Mario,” a citizen of Colombia, pleaded guilty to engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise and conspiring to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization. The proceeding took place before United States...

MIAMI – Fredy Donaldo Marmol Vallejo (Marmol), 40, will make his initial appearance in federal court in Miami, Florida today after being extradited from Honduras, his country of origin. An indictment returned by a federal grand jury in the Southern District of Florida charges Marmol with conspiring to traffic narcotics...

NORFOLK, Va. – A Portsmouth man, who was the 25th defendant associated with Operation High Tide, was sentenced today for his role in trafficking firearms and selling heroin. According to court documents, in 2017, Shon E. Melton, 32, of Portsmouth, was attributed with trafficking 19 firearms, including a concealable short...

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. – On Wednesday, a federal jury convicted two individuals on charges relating to drug trafficking and money laundering. “As the evidence at trial showed, the defendants engaged in a conspiracy to launder the proceeds of their drug trafficking crimes on behalf of a network of conspirators that...