WASHINGTON – Three Houston-area pharmacists, a doctor, and a pharmacy technician have been arrested for allegedly running three pharmacies and two clinics as “pill mills;” distributing hydrocodone, oxycodone, and other controlled drugs without a legitimate medical purpose. According to court documents, since January 2018, Chrisco Pharmacy (Chrisco), Keystone Pharmacy (Keystone)...

AELXANDRIA, Va., - A Washington, DC man was sentenced yesterday to 70 months in prison for conspiring to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine. According to court documents, since at least July 2019, Marcelin Saturne, 33, was a source of supply for multi-kilogram quantities of cocaine. Saturne acknowledged that...

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...

Baltimore, Md., – U.S. District Judge Deborah L. Boardman has approved a consent decree that permanently enjoins Elizabeth J. Allen, a Baltimore-based physician assistant, from prescribing opioids and other controlled substances, resolving the United States’ civil allegations that Allen violated the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) in illegally prescribing opioids. Under...

Greenbelt, Md., – Edwin Kerry Smith, age 43, of Silver Spring, Maryland, pleaded guilty today to possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance and admitted that heroin he distributed to one victim resulted in the victim’s fatal overdose. The guilty plea was announced by Jarod Forget, Special Agent in...

HOUSTON - A federal jury convicted a Houston-area physician for unlawfully prescribing more than 1.3 million doses of opioids. According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Parvez Qureshi, 56, of Houston, Texas, a medical doctor, conspired to and did unlawfully prescribe controlled substances from 2014 through February 2016...

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...

Washington, D.C. – Today, Jarod Forget, Special Agent in Charge of the DEA Washington Division issued a Public Safety Alert warning Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. residents of the alarming increase in the lethality and availability of fake prescription pills containing fentanyl in our area. This DEA Public Safety Alert...

Baltimore, Md., – U.S. District Judge Ellen L. Hollander sentenced Anton Williams, age 43, of Baltimore, to 10 years in federal prison, followed by four years of supervised release for conspiracy to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine in the Monument Street area of East Baltimore; possession with intent...

Charles County, Md., - On September 3, 2021 members of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Washington Division's Tactical Diversion Squad along with the Charles County Sheriff’s Office arrested Vincent Ippolito, 62, of Waldorf, and Denise Marie Shifflett, 45, of La Plata, in connection with illegally distributing drugs and narcotics. Ippolito...