Drug Enforcement Administration

‘New Slave Trade’ Has Arrived in US at Hands of Mexican Cartels
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‘New Slave Trade’ Has Arrived in US at Hands of Mexican Cartels

Jaeson Jones held up a handful of colored wristbands during a House Homeland Security Committee hearing on Wednesday. “What I’m holding in my hand before you today, I want to be very clear, this is America’s new slave trade,” Jones, a former captain for intelligence and counterterrorism at the Texas Department of Public Safety, testified before…

Cartel-backed pot grows linked to human trafficking, inhumane working conditions
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Cartel-backed pot grows linked to human trafficking, inhumane working conditions

Editor’s note: I just returned from northern California (6/2023), speaking with experts with ties into the situation with legal growers. Human trafficking is happening in legal and illegal cannabis farms.  TRINITY COUNTY, Calif. — If you buy weed illegally, you unwittingly could be supporting Mexican cartels and other criminal syndicates that lure workers to farms…

New bill directs universities to implement human trafficking awareness training – Royal Examiner
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New bill directs universities to implement human trafficking awareness training – Royal Examiner

This story is being published through a partnership between the Mercury and the Medill News Service. Tricia Obester, an elementary school teacher and mother of a high school freshman, knew fentanyl overdoses were a national crisis. She was also aware that nationally some students were taking drugs. What she didn’t realize was how young some…

DHS and DOJ Announce Historic Guatemalan Human Smuggling Extraditions
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DHS and DOJ Announce Historic Guatemalan Human Smuggling Extraditions

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Homeland Security joined the U.S. Department of Justice yesterday to announce the first ever extraditions from Guatemala to the United States on charges of human smuggling resulting in death, and the first Guatemalan human smuggling extraditions to the United States of any kind in nearly five years. This announcement…

Leader of Waycross-area drug trafficking conspiracy sentenced to decades in federal prison
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Leader of Waycross-area drug trafficking conspiracy sentenced to decades in federal prison

WAYCROSS, GA:  The leader of a south Georgia fentanyl- and heroin-trafficking operation linked to drug overdose deaths has been sentenced to more than 20 years in federal prison. Eric Lashawn Hayes, a/k/a “Pee Wee,” 39, of Blackshear, Ga., was sentenced to 262 months in prison after previously pleading guilty to Possession of a Firearm in…

Wichita Man Indicted for Sex Trafficking
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Wichita Man Indicted for Sex Trafficking

WICHITA, KAN.– A federal grand jury in Wichita returned an indictment charging a Kansas man with sex trafficking. According to court documents, Markeece Anderson, 30, of Wichita is charged with two counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion. Anderson allegedly coerced a woman to engage in commercial sexual acts. The Wichita Police Department…

Briefing on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Countering Illicit Fentanyl Trafficking Hearing
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Briefing on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Countering Illicit Fentanyl Trafficking Hearing

Executive Summary Mexican Drug Cartels and Fentanyl Supply Chains Fentanyl precursors are transported from China to Mexico, where cartels produce fentanyl in labs and then typically traffic it to the United States through ports of entry at the border. Republicans and Democrats agree that the United States must work with China and Mexico to disrupt these…

Human Smuggler Sentenced Following Migrant Death
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Human Smuggler Sentenced Following Migrant Death

MIDLAND, Texas – A Guatemalan national man was sentenced Wednesday to 10 years in prison for immigration crimes. According to court documents, Mario Rigoberto Diego-Esteban, aka “Lentes,” 26, was sentenced following his guilty plea to one count of illegal re-entry after deportation and one count of transporting undocumented migrants for commercial advantage and private financial…

Former Assembly Speaker lays out vision for his new role as Nevada's U.S. attorney
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Former Assembly Speaker lays out vision for his new role as Nevada's U.S. attorney

After more than a decade in state politics and an even longer career in the courtroom, Jason Frierson has a new boss: the federal government. “I’ve always been in some type of advocacy position,” Frierson, the newest U.S. attorney for the District of Nevada, said. “This is the first position within my legal practice where…

Eight Defendants Indicted for Human Smuggling and Drug Conspiracy
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Eight Defendants Indicted for Human Smuggling and Drug Conspiracy

Eight individuals were charged in an indictment, unsealed today in the Eastern District of Louisiana, for their involvement in an international scheme to smuggle 24 undocumented individuals from Honduras into Louisiana aboard the Motor Vessel (M/V) “Pop,” which is owned by one of the defendants. One of the defendants was also arrested for conspiring to…