Latest news with #Noriega
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Steve Noriega Joins Exclusive Forbes Business Council
WILMINGTON, NC / / June 2, 2025 / Steve Noriega, Founder and CEO of Epic Brand, has officially joined the Forbes Business Council, an exclusive, invitation-only community for top entrepreneurs and business executives. The recognition highlights Noriega's outstanding accomplishments and positions him among the world's most influential business leaders. Photo Courtesy: Steve Noriega Noriega's acceptance into this prestigious organization comes as a result of his proven business acumen, leadership in the branding and marketing industry, and his commitment to making a meaningful impact. Membership is granted only to individuals who have demonstrated exceptional success in their respective fields, making Noriega's selection a significant honor. The Forbes Business Council provides members with invaluable opportunities for growth, networking, and knowledge sharing. As a member, Noriega will have access to a vast network of entrepreneurs and thought leaders, creating a platform to foster collaboration and innovative ideas. He will also be able to contribute articles with original insights on and participate in Expert Panels, where he will share his expertise alongside other industry leaders. The Council's mission is to offer entrepreneurs an exclusive space where they can exchange knowledge, strategies, and solutions that will help them grow both personally and professionally. "I'm thrilled to be a part of such an esteemed community of business leaders," said Noriega. "Joining the Forbes Business Council is not only a personal honor but an opportunity to connect with like-minded professionals who share a passion for innovation and leadership. It's a platform that will allow me to learn, contribute, and continue to grow as both a leader and an entrepreneur." The benefits of being a member of the Forbes Business Council extend beyond networking opportunities. Members receive access to cutting-edge industry insights, specialized marketing and branding resources, and concierge services. One of the key advantages is the EXEC program, which offers exclusive luxury business, travel, and lifestyle benefits. For Noriega, these resources will play a crucial role in his continued efforts to expand Epic Brand and make a lasting impact in the industry. Noriega's acceptance into the Forbes Business Council builds on his already impressive career achievements. In 2024, he was named to Top 100 Magazine's Top 40 Under 40, recognizing his innovation and leadership within the branding and marketing space. His entrepreneurial journey with Epic Brand has been marked by both commercial success and a strong commitment to giving back to the community. Through the company's philanthropic initiatives, Noriega ensures that a portion of the company's profits go toward charitable causes, further demonstrating his belief that business should be a force for good. Under Noriega's leadership, Epic Brand has established itself as a premier branding and marketing agency. The company specializes in creating purpose-driven, digitally native brands that resonate with today's values-driven consumers. Epic Brand's focus on ethical practices and community engagement sets it apart in an increasingly competitive industry. Noriega has made it clear that his goals for Epic Brand go beyond financial success; he is committed to using his platform to make a tangible difference in the world. In the coming years, Noriega plans to expand the company's charitable efforts, further solidifying his commitment to his faith-based philanthropy while continuing to drive business growth. The Forbes Business Council is a global collective of exceptional business owners and leaders, brought together by their shared commitment to excellence. The council offers its members access to valuable resources, connections, and opportunities that are designed to help them grow their businesses and expand their professional influence. Noriega's addition to this community is a testament to the strides he has made as an entrepreneur and the positive impact he has had on the branding and marketing industry. His work with Epic Brand continues to inspire others in the business world, and his membership in the Forbes Business Council opens the door to even greater opportunities for collaboration and growth. About Forbes Councils Forbes Councils is an exclusive community of invitation-only groups created in partnership with Forbes and the founders of the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC). Forbes Councils offers its members a powerful platform for networking, knowledge sharing, and accessing invaluable business insights. Members of the Council have access to resources that help them continue to grow and succeed, with opportunities to contribute to thought leadership and expert panels across various industries. To learn more about Forbes Councils, visit Media Contact Country: United StatesMedia Contact: Steve NoriegaCompany Name: Epic BrandEmail: steve@ (302) 265-0380Website: SOURCE: Epic Brand View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
New York Post
14-05-2025
- New York Post
Sinaloa cartel leaders charged with narco-terrorism after authorities seize nearly 2 tons of fentanyl
Two leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel were hit with narco-terrorism charges on Tuesday for their involvement in allegedly trafficking 'massive' amounts of drugs into the United States, according to federal officials. Pedro Inzunza Noriega and his son, Pedro Inzunza Coronel, were both named in an unsealed federal indictment on Tuesday and charged with narco-terrorism, material support of terrorism, drug trafficking and money laundering as members of the Beltran Leyva Organization (BLO), which is a faction of the Sinaloa Cartel. Advertisement Five other BLO leaders were charged with drug trafficking and money laundering. The charges come after the Trump administration designated the Sinaloa Cartel as a Foreign Terrorist Organization on Feb. 20. Prosecutors alleged in court documents that Noriega works closely with his son to both produce and 'aggressively traffic' fentanyl into the United States. 5 Rainbow colored fentanyl pills and fentanyl bricks with 'Louis Vuitton' and 'Rolls Royce' stamps. DOJ Advertisement 5 1,500-kilogram fentanyl seizure associated with the charges. DOJ They allege that the two have led 'one of the largest and most sophisticated fentanyl production networks in the world.' Authorities said that the father and son have trafficked 'tens of thousands of kilograms of fentanyl' into the United States. 5 Pedro Inzunza Noriega is the alleged leader of the Beltrán Leyva organization. DOJ Advertisement According to federal prosecutors, Tuesday's indictment is the first of its kind from the Department of Justice's newly formed Narco-Terrorism Unit. On Dec. 3, 2024, Mexican law enforcement officials raided several locations in Sinaloa that are controlled and managed by the pair, seizing more than 1.65 tons of fentanyl. 5 1,680-kilogram cocaine seizure in Mexico City. DOJ Indictments are also pending against members of the BLO and Sinaloa Cartel, which include Fausto Isidro Meza Flores, Oscar Manuel Gastelum Iribe, Pedro Inzunza Noriega, Ivan Archivaldo Guzman Salazar, Ismael Zambada Sicairos and Jose Gil Caro Quintero. Advertisement All individuals, as well as Noriega and Coronel, remain at-large. 5 This handout picture released on February 17, 2025, by the Mexican Army shows a Mexican soldier dressed in a biosecurity suit dismantling a drug production laboratory in Cosala, Sinaloa State, Mexico. MEXICAN ARMY/AFP via Getty Images Adam Gordon, US Attorney for the Southern District of California, had a message for members of the Sinaloa Cartel during a press conference on Tuesday. 'Let me be direct: To the leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel, you are no longer the hunters. You are the hunted. You will be betrayed by your friends. You will be hounded by your enemies, and you will ultimately find yourself and your face here in a courtroom in the Southern District of California,' Gordon said.
Toronto Star
07-05-2025
- Health
- Toronto Star
Pramana Strengthens Scientific Leadership with Addition of Dr. Adrian Noriega to Advance Neurodegenerative Pipeline
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 07, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Pramana Pharmaceuticals, a late-stage preclinical biopharmaceutical company developing a transformative small molecule platform targeting the intersection of metabolism, immunity, and neurodegeneration, today announced the appointment of Adrian Noriega, M.D., Ph.D., to its senior scientific advisory board. Dr. Noriega's expertise in Alzheimer's disease, vascular neurology, and biomarker-driven strategy marks a key milestone in Pramana's neurodegenerative expansion. With this appointment, Pramana further strengthens its world-class scientific team spanning metabolic disease, cardiovascular biology, and neurology. Together, this group is advancing a bold vision: to transform chronic disease treatment using a first-in-class, oral GPR119 agonists designed as 'smart molecules' for glycemic control and beyond.
Associated Press
07-04-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
Amishwerks Launches New Painted Cabinet Collection, Fueling Explosive Growth
Amishwerks, a leading American-made cabinet company, is thrilled to announce the launch of its new Painted Collection of kitchen cabinets and bathroom vanities featuring white, gray, and navy blue finishes. This expansion comes in response to overwhelming customer demand, further solidifying Amishwerks' position as a premier provider of high-quality, affordable cabinetry. Crafted with the same dedication to excellence that has driven the company's remarkable 1939% revenue growth and 931% customer traffic increase this year, the Painted Collection will be available by Q3 of 2025. Amishwerks, known for its commitment to premium quality and handcrafted products, continues to prioritize 'Made in the USA' craftsmanship. Each cabinet, vanity, and range hood is meticulously built by skilled Amish carpenters using 100% hardwood and premium soft-close components. 'At Amishwerks, we're passionate about delivering exceptional products and service,' says Steve Noriega, Founder & Owner of Amishwerks. 'The launch of our Painted Collection, alongside our successful unfinished and stained cabinet lines, reflects our dedication to meeting our customers' evolving needs. We're excited to offer these new finishes, which will undoubtedly add a touch of modern elegance craftsmanship to any home.' Amishwerks, a company with over 25 years of industry experience, prides itself on its 5-star customer service and its ability to cater to both DIY enthusiasts and industry professionals. The company offers a wide range of products, including unfinished, stained, and now painted kitchen cabinets and bathroom vanities, as well as range hoods and floating shelves. All products are crafted with meticulous attention to detail, ensuring durability and timeless appeal. 'We believe in providing our customers with the best,' adds Noriega. 'Our commitment to using only the finest materials and our dedication to handcrafted quality sets us apart. We're confident that our new Painted Collection will further enhance our reputation for excellence.' To explore the new Painted Collection and learn more about Amishwerks' exceptional products, visit About Amishwerks Amishwerks is a U.S.-based company specializing in handcrafted, solid wood kitchen cabinets, bathroom vanities, range hoods, and floating shelves. Built by skilled Amish carpenters, the company's products are known for their quality, durability, and timeless design. The brand offers a range of finishes, including unfinished, stained, and painted options, to fit any home style. With a focus on affordability and five-star customer service, Amishwerks has quickly become a trusted name in home improvement. Its products are made in the USA using premium materials, ensuring lasting value. Media Contact
Los Angeles Times
28-03-2025
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
Trump declared war on fentanyl traffickers. Is it what parents of overdose victims want?
The first time Harold Noriega voted for Donald Trump in 2016, it was from a business standpoint. But when he cast his ballot again in 2024 — two years after his 19-year-old son, Cooper Noriega, took a fentanyl-laced pill and died — his primary motivation had changed. 'I truly believe this in my heart, that if the president of our country in the previous four years would have secured the border,' Noriega said, 'our son probably would be alive.' President Trump has pledged in his second term to tighten national security, beginning with an immigration crackdown that launched within hours of his January inauguration. Since then, he's rebranded cartels as foreign terrorist groups and used tariffs as leverage to push Mexico to block the flow of illicit drugs into the U.S. 'We've launched an all-out war on fentanyl traffickers, and it's a war that we're going to win,' Trump said in a March 14 address to the Justice Department. The presidential administration is also pushing for fentanyl trafficking to be designated as a 'weapon of mass destruction,' unleashing more federal resources and stricter enforcement, according to the Department of Defense. Trump's tactics are encouraging to many parents of drug victims, including Noriega, who noted that even though signs point toward overdoses being on the decline, fentanyl is still killing about 70,000 Americans annually. 'If Trump doesn't do what he says he's going to do, I'll be the first person to be shouting, 'I was wrong. I was wrong about that — that guy's a fraud,'' Noriega said. 'But so far, it doesn't seem to be that way.' California officials for several years have similarly doubled down on supply-side interventions such as specialized task forces and aggressive prosecution to fight the opioid crisis. Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman and California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta this month announced a 50-pound fentanyl seizure in Downey that Bonta called the 'biggest bust yet' from a new state effort. 'We're hoping that the message goes out from this enforcement effort today to the fentanyl poisoners out there, that we're coming for you,' Hochman said. The term 'fentanyl poisoning' is one that parents of fentanyl victims have advocated should replace 'overdose' in the discourse around drug fatalities — contending that the latter term unfairly assigns blame to victims and is inaccurate given that many ingest the drug unknowingly. It's just one of the ways they've continued to influence the conversation around the opioid epidemic. But their impact has also gone far beyond semantics. In Riverside County, Temecula resident Matt Capelouto completely changed local management of drug cases when he challenged the ruling of his daughter Alexandra Capelouto's 2019 fentanyl death as 'non-criminal.' Alexandra, a 20-year-old college student, died after taking a fentanyl-laced pill she believed to be prescription medication. Frustrated by the county's refusal to treat his daughter's death as a crime, Capelouto resolved to hold her dealer accountable. The case eventually made its way to Riverside County Dist. Atty. Mike Hestrin. 'He asked me a question, 'Why isn't it murder?'' Hestrin said, recalling an early meeting with Capelouto. The district attorney said his inability to provide an answer was 'the pulling of the proverbial thread,' which eventually led the county to overhaul its treatment of overdose cases. To date, Hestrin said, he has charged 38 suspected fentanyl dealers with murder, three cases have gone to trial, and 16 suspects have pleaded guilty to a lesser offense. In 2023, his office became the first in California to secure a guilty verdict by jury in a fentanyl-related homicide trial. Critics of Hestrin's hard-line approach contend that pursuing murder charges against dealers does nothing to reduce demand for drugs and tends to give the stiffest punishments to people at the lowest rungs of the supply chain. Plus, new dealers will always crop up. But Capelouto said people hardly think this way about other crimes. 'We wouldn't say, 'Well, you know, why bother arresting a bank robber? There's just going to be more bank robbers,'' Capelouto said. Capelouto added that just weeks after his daughter's dealer found out she was dead, evidence showed he was requesting more pills from his supplier. 'You cannot tell me that locking him up has not saved lives,' he said of the dealer, who was sentenced to nine years in prison in 2023. The Riverside County district attorney also stood by his approach. 'I'm not naive. I don't think that we are going to stop the drug trade because we're prosecuting it,' Hestrin said. Nevertheless, he said, 'we still have to keep the pressure on these drug trafficking organizations and on these drug dealers, even though we know that we're not likely to see the end of fentanyl or the drug trade anytime soon.' Los Angeles authorities have also pursued several homicide cases against suppliers in drug deaths, though not all of the defendants are dealers in the conventional sense. The mother and grandfather of a 17-month-old boy who died after being exposed to fentanyl face murder charges, brought by county prosecutors with support from the child's father. The rise in aggressive prosecution tactics has made Kyara Mascolo, whose 37-year-old son, Ray Mascolo, died in 2020 after taking a fentanyl-laced pill, the most optimistic she's been since she lost him. In early March, Ray's dealer was convicted of eight drug charges including distributing fentanyl that caused three near-fatal overdoses. After the guilty verdict in Los Angeles federal court, Kyara Mascolo released a statement thanking the federal prosecutors and gave a shout-out to Trump for designating drug cartels as 'terrorist organizations.' 'It's a huge problem that hasn't gone away, and it's finally being dealt with,' Mascolo said in an interview with The Times. 'So at least it's, I hope, the beginning of the end.' But experts in harm reduction, a public health approach that focuses on promoting safe drug use practices rather than enforcing abstinence, warned that hyperaggressive prosecution is little more than political performance, designed to pacify constituents and distract them from the underlying causes of the drug epidemic without actually solving the problem. 'The parent paradigm of pushing for tougher sentencing and tougher approaches in many ways reflects this theater that prosecutors and lawmakers are engaged in,' said Leo Beletsky, a drug policy researcher at Northeastern University and UC San Diego. 'This is the narrative that they have been telling the public for a long time.' Beletsky pointed to years of research indicating that prosecutions do not effectively deter drug use or distribution, and that harm reduction services — Medicaid expansion, increased access to Narcan and affordable substance abuse treatment — are the true cause of declining drug fatalities. Many parent-led advocacy groups push for these approaches, Beletsky said, but their voices are typically ignored because they don't suit politicians' agendas — or they're drowned out by the often louder cries of parents demanding justice. 'Even if those other parents wanted to be loud, there's just not a microphone,' said Lindsay LaSalle, managing director of policy at the Drug Policy Alliance, a New York-based nonprofit that aims to decriminalize drug use and supports harm reduction. 'People aren't interested in profiling [parents] that are like, 'My child died, and I think we need good healthcare!'' LaSalle said. But the perceived indifference hasn't deterred Susan Ousterman, whose 24-year-old son, Tyler Cordeiro, died in 2020 from an overdose of fentanyl, heroin and xylazine, a veterinary tranquilizer increasingly common in illicit drugs. Ousterman has long advocated for the replacement of punitive measures that perpetuate stigma around drug use with healthcare and treatment interventions that promote recovery for addicts. 'We're not going to get the resources that people need to them as long as they're viewed as criminals,' Ousterman said. 'These are just people trying to find relief in some way.' Ousterman said she reached out to the person her son took drugs with on the day he died. That person was so terrified of being prosecuted, Ousterman said, he took nine months to respond. The two of them eventually became very close. He was a very bright kid, Ousterman said, who'd lost both his parents at a young age. 'What would that have done if I had sent him to jail, and then, 40% more chance of him dying?' she said, citing statistics that show recently incarcerated people have an elevated risk of overdose. 'If his mother was alive, I wouldn't want to meet her in a grief support group.' The difficulty with harm reduction interventions is that they can take time to yield tangible results, said Jaime Arredondo, a substance use researcher who works on overdose prevention at the U.S.-Mexico border. Politicians don't want to wait, Arredondo said. They want a 'magic bullet.' Some parents of fentanyl victims agree with that perspective. Amy Neville, whose 14-year-old son, Alexander, died in 2020 after taking a fentanyl-laced pill he bought on Snapchat, is among those skeptical of the rhetoric around shutting down the border and throwing away the keys when locking up dealers. 'Even if we closed everything up and drugs couldn't get in or out tomorrow,' Neville said, homegrown operations would pop up to meet user demand. The yoga instructor-turned-activist instead favors a public health approach to the opioid crisis that is grounded in educating young people about drugs in the digital era — and pressing tech companies to create better safeguards for young users. Neville is the lead plaintiff in one of several lawsuits filed on behalf of more than 60 families of fentanyl victims — including the Capeloutos — against Snap, Snapchat's parent company. The families argue the social media giant's 'defective and dangerous' product facilitated deadly drug sales. Snap has said it has no duty to 'protect users from the acts of third-party criminals,' court documents said. The case remains pending in Los Angeles County Superior Court. Apart from the litigation, Neville said, she's committed to fighting the stigma around substance abuse disorder. Even hard-liners such as Noriega agree that is part of a long-term solution. Recycling tactics from a failed war on drugs will only make that stigma worse, Neville said. 'We have to come up with better plans,' she said.
