The case, a federal appeals court said, "began like something out of a James Bond novel." The U.S. investigation of a British national that started with a proposal to sell a component for dirty bombs "morphed into an international drug conspiracy sting," the appeals court said. This week, the court overturned the drug conspiracy conviction of Christopher Benbow, 64, who was sentenced last year in Tampa to life in prison. ...more

August 20, 2008

TAMPA - A Bahamian national was sentenced in a Tampa federal courtroom today to concurrent sentences of 169 months in prison on two indictments involving cocaine trafficking, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. ...more

August 14, 2008

An investigation into a Polk County marijuana distribution ring has led to 19 arrests, including the arrest of a Lake Wales police officer, Polk County deputies say. ...more

August 14, 2008

An investigation into a Polk marijuana distribution ring has led to several arrests — including a law enforcement officer, who faces corruption charges — according to the Polk County Sheriff's Office. ...more

August 13, 2008

Three men delivered several pounds of methamphetamine to a law enforcement agent in Plant City on Saturday afternoon, Hillsborough County deputies say. ...more

August 11, 2008

The economy is tough on drug dealers too, investigators learned as part of a sweeping probe of two trafficking networks stretching from Texas and Georgia to Fort Myers and the Bay area. ...more

July 24, 2008

A five-month drug investigation targeting two drug-trafficking groups and four distribution cells throughout the state has culminated with nearly two dozen arrests this morning, officials said. Tampa and Plant City police, federal authorities and the sheriff's offices in Hillsborough, Pasco and Lee counties cooperated in the investigation. Forty-one people have been arrested. ...more

July 23, 2008

TAMPA - Law enforcement agents burst into a Seffner clinic run by the former medical director of the Hillsborough County Jail this afternoon and charged the doctor with drug trafficking. ...more

July 16, 2008

TAMPA - A Pasco County pain management doctor is on trial this week in federal court on charges he possessed child pornography. ...more

July 7, 2008

Former Hillsborough County State Attorney Bill James, whose career as a crusader against corruption included the federal indictment of three Hillsborough County commissioners, has died at 75. ...more

June 18, 2008