DEC 6 - LOS ANGELES - Law enforcement authorities this morning arrested 18 defendants named in three federal grand jury indictments stemming from Operation Roman Empire, a 2½-year investigation into South Los Angeles street gangs allegedly controlled by a Mexican Mafia member who directs criminal activities through his daughter. A...

LOS ANGELES - A dozen people associated with a chain of nine marijuana stores that operated across Orange and Los Angeles counties were arrested this morning on federal drug trafficking charges. The 12 arrested are among 14 people named in a 14-count indictment returned last week by a federal grand...

LOS ANGELES - A federal grand jury has returned a superseding indictment that charges 16 defendants with being part of a drug trafficking organization that illegally obtained and distributed more than 900,000 OxyContin pills obtained in part through fraud against public insurance programs such as Medicare. One of the defendants...

LOS ANGELES - On October 12, 2012, a federal jury in Los Angeles convicted Mr. Aaron Sandusky, 41, of Rancho Cucamonga, former president of G3 Holistics, Inc., a marijuana business operating in the Inland Empire, of one count of conspiracy to manufacture marijuana plants, to possess with intent to distribute...

LOS ANGELES - A Los Angeles area toy wholesaler, its two owners, and the company’s primary bookkeeper pleaded guilty today to federal charges related to their participation in an elaborate scheme known as a Black Market Peso Exchange, which enables drug trafficking organizations in Mexico and Colombia to launder proceeds...

LOS ANGELES, CA - An investigation by the San Gabriel Valley Safe Streets Task Force resulted in the arrest of 16 of 27 defendants today who face federal narcotics charges for their roles in a methamphetamine distribution network, announced representatives from the agencies who jointly conducted the investigation at a...

LOS ANGELES - A Mexican businessman pleaded guilty today in federal court to conspiring with the owners of a Los Angeles area toy wholesaler to launder thousands of “narco dollars” for drug trafficking organizations in Mexico. Luis Ernesto Flores Rivera, 54, of Guadalajara, Mexico, faces up to 20 years in...

Riverside, CA - The Drug Enforcement Administration today announced that operators of an Inland Empire chain of marijuana stores and others associated with a warehouse where drugs were cultivated for the stores were arrested this morning on federal drug trafficking charges. A six-count indictment returned last week by a federal...

LOS ANGELES, CA - Federal and local authorities arrested 14 defendants named in a federal indictment that alleges widespread drug trafficking activities by a Whittier-based organization and its Mexico-based suppliers of cocaine and methamphetamine on December 8. An additional five defendants named in the indictment are already in custody. Those...

Seventeen San Antonio-based members of the Texas (TS) have been charged by federal grand jury indictment with conspiring to violate the Racketeering Influenced Corrupt (RICO) statute. The announcement was made today by United States Attorney Robert Pitman, DEA Special Agent in Charge Javier Pena, U.S. Marshal Robert Almonte, ATF Special...