Drug Enforcement Administration

President-elect Donald Trump has nominated Hillsborough County, Florida, Sheriff Chad Chronister to lead the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), he announced Saturday.

A former Drug Enforcement Administration special agent says the activities of the violent Venezuelan prison gang, Tren de Aragua (TdA), in Texas, could be “just the beginning.”

According to a source within the Department of Homeland Security, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has all but abandoned its offices in Eagle Pass and Del Rio, Texas. Only one special agent is working in one border office, and a local police task force officer is working in the other. The situation, according to the source, leaves just one DEA agent working a few days per week along the Texas border between El Paso and Laredo.

The son of a Gulf Cartel operator who helped run a large-scale operation in Texas will spend two and a half years in federal prison for trying to intimidate federal agents. The agents were hunting for his father and potential witnesses against him.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador lashed out at the U.S. government, calling its agencies immoral for allowing three news outlets to publish a series of exposés detailing how the Sinaloa Cartel funneled millions into his 2006 failed presidential campaign.

Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador presented a medal to a cartel-connected Army general who spent time in a U.S. jail awaiting trial on drug charges. The general was ultimately turned over to Mexico, where he was released.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration slow-walked an investigation into the Sinaloa Cartel faction of Los Chapitos and played politics with other federal agencies, according to U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) in a letter sent to the U.S. Department of Justice. The senator claimed that the DEA and the U.S. Attorney’s office delayed investigations and cooperation with other agencies while the drug lords killed two cooperators in Mexico and continued spreading their drug empire and fentanyl distribution.

A Texas sheriff arrested and charged a Reynosa, Tamaulipas, city councilwoman on state drug possession charges after a U.S. federal judge dismissed the federal charge and ordered her release. Federal authorities arrested the Mexican border city politician after finding more than 42 kilograms of cocaine inside her vehicle.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador harshly criticized the U.S. government over an ongoing investigation into the Sinaloa Cartel. The president stated U.S. authorities not only sent informants into the criminal organization but also tapped the communications of military forces and their response to cartels.

Mexico’s government remained silent after the head of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) delivered some harsh criticism during a U.S. Senate hearing. During testimony, she stated that Mexican authorities are not doing enough to stop both the Sinaloa Cartel and Cartel Jalisco New Generation (CJNG).

Border Patrol agents in Robstown, Texas along with local law enforcement authorities discovered 25 pounds of liquid fentanyl hidden in a specialized compartment inside a vehicle’s gas tank. Officials say this quantity of liquid fentanyl is enough to kill a population of 5.665 million people — more than double the population of the city of Houston.

The DEA announced Tuesday that a task force team busted a New Jersey woman trafficking approximately 15,000 rainbow fentanyl pills stuffed in Lego boxes in Manhattan. The drug agency noted that this “significant seizure” of the colored pills was the largest in New York City’s history.

Officials are raising the alarm that children are being targeted by drug cartels ahead of the Halloween season after authorities discovered 15,000 fentanyl pills hidden in candy packaging in Connecticut.

Federal and local law enforcement officials seized a record-setting load of cartel-connected methamphetamine in San Diego County, California. The drugs, loaded 20-foot box truck, weighed in excess of 5,000 pounds and are reported to be the largest seizure in San Diego County.

A Japanese Yakuza leader and others were caught amid an alleged scheme to buy missiles in exchange for drugs headed to New York.

A female Mexican national pleaded guilty to laundering large quantities of cash through U.S. banks in Ohio for one of the most violent drug cartels.

Mexico’s president sent friendly greetings to an imprisoned drug lord who has been singled out by the U.S. as the mastermind behind the 1985 murder of DEA Agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena. The politician also said he is not opposed to releasing him from jail.

HOUSTON, Texas — Drug Enforcement Administration agents seized 27 trailer loads of opiates from a Woodfield Pharma distribution center. Investigators believe the company lost tens of millions of opiate doses over the past three years.

The National Police of Haiti confirmed in a press conference late Wednesday that authorities had identified a group of “commandos” suspected of having assassinated President Jovenel Moïse in his home the night before.

CBP Air and Marine Operations (AMO) crews teamed up with other law enforcement agencies to interdict a boat traveling from the U.S. to the Bahamas with unreported currency onboard.

Federal authorities arrested a police officer from the Texas border city of El Paso for allegedly helping a local drug distributor. The police officer stands accused of carrying out countersurveillance operations and leaking license plates of undercover vehicles to the alleged drug dealer.

A second laptop belonging to Hunter Biden, son of former Vice President Joe Biden, was seized in February during a raid on a psychiatrist by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Hunter Biden was not, reportedly, the target of the raid.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers in Otay Mesa, California, seized a near-record 3,100 pounds of methamphetamine, fentanyl, and heroin at a commercial port of entry. The seizure is the second-largest seizure along the southwest border with Mexico in the agency’s history.

Cartel Jalisco New Generation (CJNG) is estimated to have more than 5,000 operatives working on every continent save Antarctica. The cartel is believed to have amassed a $50 billion fortune and smuggles at least five tons of methamphetamine into the U.S. monthly, according to DEA estimates.

A federal task force in Southern California recently discovered a sophisticated cross-border tunnel running from Mexico to the United States. The task force seized significant quantities of cocaine, methamphetamine, fentanyl, and marijuana during a search of the connected San Diego-area warehouse.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) announced the results of a months-long operation targeting one of Mexico’s most violent drug cartels known as Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion.

FBI agents arrested a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent and his wife on charges they allegedly laundered millions of dollars for a Colombian drug cartel. Prosecutors alleged the couple used the agent’s position and influence to divert millions in drug proceeds from the DEA to their own personal use, including the purchase of expensive vehicles, jewelry, and vacation homes.

Two men were arrested for alleged drug trafficking Saturday after troopers found a bag stuffed with drugs inside their vehicle in Santa Rosa County, Florida.

Drug Enforcement Administration officials announced the discovery of what they are calling the “longest cross-border tunnel” under the California-Mexico boundary. The structure stretches more than three-quarters of a mile near Otay Mesa, California.

Two-hundred and ninety people were arrested and dozens of pharmacies shut down by Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents in Florida this past week. 

The Trump administration announced on Monday that it will approve more marijuana growers for both medical and scientific research.

A U.S. citizen who resided in the Mexican border city of Tijuana admitted to smuggling more than 450,000 fentanyl pills from that country into the United States. The drug smuggler made the confession during a guilty plea before a federal judge in a U.S. District Court. The alleged criminal activity occurred during a nine-month conspiracy from February to October 2018.

Two separate investigations by Phoenix Police Narcotics and a Joint Bureau of Indian Affairs and Drug Enforcement Agency operation resulted in the seizure of 45,000 fentanyl pills this past week. One incident occurred in west Phoenix while the second took place on an Indian reservation that sits on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents busted a “huge and sophisticated” meth lab near Atlanta, Georgia, they say is run by a Mexican drug cartel.

Mexican drug cartels continue to be the greatest criminal drug threat to the U.S., federal authorities stated in one of their latest reports. Federal agencies reported that drug cartels in Mexico continue to be the wholesale sources of drugs for street gangs that in turn push narcotics at the local level.

Texas prison officials reported the discovery of nearly $18 million dollars worth of cocaine in a shipment of bananas being donated to a state penitentiary.