Washington, DC - Today, James Carroll, Deputy Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, announced the designation of 10 new areas across Kentucky, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and West Virginia as High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTAs). This designation enables the 10 areas to receive Federal resources to further the coordination and development of drug control efforts among Federal, State, local, and tribal law enforcement officers, and allows local agencies to benefit from ongoing HIDTA initiatives that are working to reduce drug trafficking across the United States.

Miami, Florida - A Homestead, Florida man who was charged with surreptitiously producing and distributing pornographic audio and video recordings of himself engaging in sexual activity with multiple men, pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court in Miami.

Cleveland, Ohio - Pablo Duran Ramirez, 50, pleaded guilty Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Cleveland, Ohio, to encouraging the illegal entry of Guatemalan nationals, including unaccompanied minors, into the United States for financial gain, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General John Gore of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, U.S. Attorney Justin E. Herdman of the Northern District of Ohio, and Special Agent in Charge Stephen D. Anthony of the FBI’s Cleveland Division.

Washington, DC - The operators of an illegal debt collection scheme have agreed to be permanently banned from the debt collection business in order to settle FTC charges that they falsely threatened to have people arrested if their debts were not paid.

Bismarck, North Dakota - On September 14, a federal jury in North Dakota convicted a Providence, Rhode Island woman after a week-long trial, on all 15 counts for her participation in a Jamaican lottery fraud scheme, which has affected about 100 identified victims with reported losses totaling more than $6.7 million.

Washington, DC - President Donald J. Trump on H.R. 5895: