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Tip Submitted to Stop Houston Gangs Website Leads to Arrests

Houston police, joined by numerous local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies have arrested more than 100 suspects involved in organized criminal activity thanks to a single tip from hundreds provided to the Stop Houston Gangs website.

Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Published: 4/11/2012 12:00:00 AM

Meth Lab in Nursing Home Raises Troubling Issues of Easier, Dangerous Drug Production

Ohio narcotics investigators have found clandestine labs for manufacturing methamphetamine, an illegal and highly addictive stimulant, in all manner of places over the years -- barns in the countryside, houses in the suburbs, abandoned buildings in cities. But the puzzling discovery of a lab in a resident's room at a nursing home here three weeks ago, after a fiery explosion that fatally burned a man, has attracted national media attention.

Source: Cleveland.com, Published: 3/25/2012 12:00:00 AM

Haji Bagcho, One of World’s Largest Heroin Traffickers, Convicted on Drug Trafficking, Narco-Terrorism Charges

An Afghan national with ties to the Taliban was convicted today by a jury in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia of conspiracy, distribution of heroin for importation into the United States and narco-terrorism, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and Administrator Michele M. Leonhart of the Drug Enforcement Administration. Haji Bagcho, from Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan, was investigated by the DEA for narcotics offenses. The investigation revealed that Bagcho was one of the largest heroin traffickers in the world and manufactured the drug in clandestine laboratories along Afghanistan’s border region with Pakistan. Bagcho sent heroin to more than 20 countries, including the United States. Proceeds from his heroin trafficking were then used to support high-level members of the Taliban to further their insurgency in Afghanistan. It is estimated that proceeds used to support the Taliban may have accounted for 20 Percent of the world’s heroin production (over 123,000 Kilograms) in 2006.

Source: U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Published: 3/13/2012 12:00:00 AM

Meth Lab Blast Kills One at Nursing Home

Authorities say a clandestine methamphetamine laboratory caused the fiery explosion that rattled Park Haven Nursing Home Sunday night, fatally injuring a man and burning four others. Shaun Warrens, 31, of Ashtabula was reported dead. Three men, who were reportedly “engulfed in flames,” were among five transported by ambulance to Ashtabula County Medical Center, and two other people were treated and released at the scene, according to a nurse at the scene, police and an Ashtabula Fire Department report.

Source: The Star Beacon, Ashtabula, OH, Published: 3/6/2012 12:00:00 AM

One of the Largest Methamphetamine Seizures in American History

Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent in Charge Anthony D. Williams, Palo Alto Police Department Chief Dennis Burns, San Jose Police Department Chief Chris Moore, and Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen announced one of the largest domestic methamphetamine seizures in history - 750 Pounds Seized in San Jose, California.

Source: U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Published: 3/2/2012 12:00:00 AM

Task Force Scoops Up Five in Bust of Meth Lab

Five people were scooped up Tuesday after agents with the Eastern Oklahoma Violent Crimes Task Force served a warrant and discovered a methamphetamine lab. Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office and the Tahlequah Police Department served the warrant on 430 Road Tuesday afternoon near Hulbert and arrested Kenneth Dean Collins, 26; Richard S. Chuculate, 52; Justin Lee Yandell, 33; Deborah Yandell, 50; and Jody Isaac Smith, 43. Investigators with the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office said Tahlequah Police Department’s Special Weapons and Tactics team assisted in the bust because of the danger of chemicals agents believed were inside the home. Officers learned of the alleged illegal activity from concerned citizens’ tips.

Source: The Tahlequah Daily Press, Tahlequah, OK, Published: 3/1/2012 12:00:00 AM

Mexican Border's Drug Tunnels Grow in Sophistication

When smuggling goes smoothly for the marijuana division of the huge Sinaloa Cartel, cross-border deliveries unfold with clockwork precision. Harvested marijuana arrives in plastic-wrapped bales at a depot hidden among the rundown warehouses on the Mexican side of the concrete U.S. border fence. Once enough marijuana is collected, workers drop the vacuum-packed bales through shafts leading to the ever-more-elaborate tunnels that cross underneath the border through the clay-laden soil. U.S. agents have been waging war against the tunnels for years. They use a range of high-tech devices, from ground-penetrating radar to seismic sensors, to find and destroy them. But despite the efforts, drug smugglers continue to build the tunnels, often spending $1 million to dig a single pathway equipped with lighting, forced-air ventilation, water pumps, shoring on walls and hydraulic elevators.

Source: The Sacramento Bee, Sacramento, CA, Published: 2/21/2012 12:00:00 AM

Task Force Busts Meth Conspiracy Connected to St. Louis Gang

When Franklin County narcotics investigators started finding large amounts of cold pills at some meth lab scenes they launched an investigation that linked local meth cooks to gang members in St. Louis. Gang members reportedly stood outside pharmacies and would pay people $20 to go inside and buy a $10 box of pills containing pseudoephedrine and tell them to keep the change. They then would sell the pills to meth cooks in Franklin and Jefferson counties for $50 to $80 a box. That investigation culminated this week with federal grand jury indictments being issued against a ringleader of a St. Louis gang and six residents from Franklin and Jefferson counties.

Source: eMissourian.com, The Missourian Publishing Company, Published: 2/17/2012 12:00:00 AM

Drug Problem a Major Target

It’s an alarm law enforcement has been sounding for years – prescription drug abuse is a growing trend and is claiming lives as the problem sweeps across the state from the east to the west. Statewide, 82 people a month die from drug overdoses. In Warren County, the number of overdose deaths doubled from nine in 2010 to 18 in 2011. Drug investigators are also seeing the number of pill seizures increase here. In 2010, Bowling Green-Warren County Drug Task Force investigators seized 1,123 controlled substance pills, task force director Tommy Loving said. Last year, that number climbed to 1,907 pills, a 69.8 percent increase. The number of pill trafficking cases jumped from 59 in 2010 to 91 in 2011, a 54.2 percent increase.

Source: Bowling Green Daily News, Bowling Green, KY, Published: 2/12/2012 12:00:00 AM

TN-ZERO Task Force Targets Synthetic Drugs and Crime

A new task force in Rutherford County isn’t only aimed at weeding out illicit drug-mimicking synthetic substances like plant food and bath salts, it’s about identifying and working toward the eradication all types of societal ills.

Source: Daily News Journal, Murfreesboro, TN, Published: 2/10/2012 12:00:00 AM

Largest Drug Bust in Colorado History

Special agents, police officers and deputy sheriffs this morning arrested 80 people on drug and/or gun charges, the United States Attorney’s Office announced. The arrests were made by over 500 agents and officers, making this the largest drug bust in Denver history. The arrests, announced today at a press conference in Aurora, were made after separate investigations were conducted by the Metro Gang Task Force; the Denver Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) Strike Force; U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI); and the North Metro Task Force. The combination of these four separate but related investigations resulted in today’s mass arrests. A total of 97 defendants have been charged in either federal or state court as a part of this operation.

Source: U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Published: 2/10/2012 12:00:00 AM

Scent Leads Officer to Meth in home

A narcotics officer’s nose helped authorities find a methamphetamine lab Wednesday night in a Winona Lake home, according to the Kosciusko County Drug Task Force. The officer, a member of the task force, was doing undercover surveillance and noticed what smelled like meth being made near Chestnut Avenue and 14th Street. Other officers came to the area, the task force said, and about 7:45 p.m., they determined the source of the odor was 100 14th St.

Source: The Journal Gazette, Fort Wayne, IN, Published: 2/3/2012 12:00:00 AM

Drug Kingpin Gets 104 to 216 Years

Philadelphia native Gene "Shorty" Carter, considered the kingpin of an organization that distributed a million dollars' worth of cocaine and heroin in Blair County, was sentenced Thursday afternoon to 104 to 216 years in prison by Blair County Senior Judge Thomas G. Peoples. Randy Feathers, the regional director of the Attorney General's Bureau of Narcotics Investigation, said he believes the sentence is the longest ever handed down in Pennsylvania for drug offenses.

Source: The Altoona Mirror, Altoona, Pennsylvania, Published: 1/13/2012 12:00:00 AM

Drug Sweep Grabs Four from Acworth

Four Acworth residents are among seven people arrested in connection with a series of drug raids the Cherokee Multi-Agency Narcotics Squad carried out the past few days. CMANS seized meth and cocaine worth $266,500 in busting a drug ring based in Woodstock that reached into Cobb County, Phil Price, the commander of the drug task force, said in a news release this afternoon. “This is the fourth major drug trafficking organization we have dismantled in the last year,” Price said. “We will not allow Cherokee County to become a haven for drug traffickers.”

Source: The Acworth Patch, Acworth, Georgia, Published: 1/10/2012 12:00:00 AM

Police (The Burke County Narcotics Task Force) Expect More Meth Busts in 2012

The Burke County Narcotics Task Force dismantled 33 meth labs last year, making Burke the top county in North Carolina for such busts in 2011. Task Force Sgt. Rick Hasson says his investigators expect to find at least that many, if not more, in 2012. Burke County is not alone; North Carolina and much of the nation saw record amounts of meth busts in 2011. But Hasson says Burke’s investigators place a premium on wiping out meth production.

Source: The News Herald, Burke County, North Carolina, Published: 1/7/2012 12:00:00 AM

Fifteen Mexican Drug Cartel Members Operating in Atlanta Sentenced to Federal Prison

Operation Four Horsemen nets 567 kilograms of cocaine and over $23 million in drug proceeds in the Atlanta area. Oliver Maciel-Macedo, 29, of Mexico, an Atlanta-based cell-head of a significant Mexican drug trafficking and money laundering cartel, was sentenced to prison today by United States District Judge Richard W. Story. Macedo and his co-conspirators were targets of a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) investigation dubbed Operation Four Horsemen, which resulted in the seizure of 567 kilograms of cocaine and over $23 million in laundered drug proceeds in the Atlanta area. Combined with drug and money seizures in Laredo, Texas, the investigation has resulted in the seizure of 973 kilograms of cocaine, 1,445 kilograms of marijuana, and over $31 million in drug proceeds.

Source: U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Published: 1/5/2012 12:00:00 AM

Police: Small Children Inside Room with Drugs

Three small children were inside a motel room with two adults who possessed methamphetamine with the intent to sell it, according to Durant Police. Two people were arrested Thursday after police served a search warrant at a room at Boulder Motel in the 900 block of West Main Street. Officers knocked on the door at 9:39 p.m. and because no one answered, they entered the room.

Source: Durant Daily Democrat, Published: 12/18/2011 12:00:00 AM

Feds Bust 13 Suspected Bloods Members on Narcotics Charges

Thirteen members and associates of a violent drug gang operating throughout the Hudson Valley have been arrested, a law-enforcement official tells NBC New York. The FBI's Hudson Valley Safe Streets Task Force arrested members of the Bloods gang on federal narcotics charges early Tuesday in Monticello, Fallsberg and Liberty, the law-enforcement official said.

Source: NBC New York, Channel 4, Published: 12/13/2011 12:00:00 AM

Brevard Sheriff's Dragnet Aims At Illegal Prescription Drug Dealers

In response to the trend of illegal prescription drug abuse plaguing our county, the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office conducted a dragnet operation designed to target those illegally distributing prescription medications (and other controlled substances) operating throughout Brevard County. During the past month, narcotics purchases were made throughout Brevard County. As a result, 59 arrest warrants were obtained for individuals who are responsible for illegally selling prescription medications such as Percocet, Lortab, Roxicodone and Oxycodone.

Source: The Brevard Times, Published: 12/8/2011 12:00:00 AM

Drug Tunnel Has Secret Elevator Made to Ship Tons of Narcotics

Federal officials revealed that a drug tunnel discovered Tuesday during a bust that netted 32 tons of marijuana was so sophisticated that it had a secret working elevator, electric lighting, rail cars and hydraulic doors -- but may have been found before smugglers could get the narcotics into the hands of American customers. The tunnel, ending in San Diego, Calif., is easily the "most sophisticated that we have discovered perhaps ever, but definitely at least in the last five years," Lauren Mack, a spokesperson for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement told ABC News early Wednesday.

Source: ABC News, Published: 12/1/2011 12:00:00 AM