Mexican National Sentenced to Six Years for Fentanyl and Cocaine Trafficking in Seattle
A 37-year-old Mexican national formerly living in Issaquah received a six-year prison sentence in U.S. District Court in Seattle on June 3 for his role in an armed drug trafficking organization. The conviction triggers mandatory federal supervision upon release and removes the defendant from U.S. streets after he had been unlawfully present following prior removal.
nypost.comSEATTLE — A 37-year-old Mexican national who previously resided in Issaquah was sentenced to six years in federal prison Tuesday for trafficking cocaine and fentanyl as part of an armed drug ring that targeted customers in Seattle’s homeless encampments and Chinatown-International District, the U.S. Department of Justice announced.
The defendant is one individual convicted in the ring. The organization distributed cocaine and fentanyl directly to users in homeless encampments and the International District, according to the Justice Department. The six-year term was imposed in U.S. District Court in Seattle.
The sentence changes the defendant’s status from pretrial detention or release conditions to immediate incarceration in the Federal Bureau of Prisons. He will serve the full term minus any good-time credit, followed by supervised release. Upon completion of the sentence he faces deportation because he is unlawfully present in the United States after a previous removal.
Downstream, the conviction adds one more federal prisoner to the system requiring Bureau of Prisons bed space and post-release supervision resources. It closes one distribution pathway that had supplied fentanyl and cocaine in two specific Seattle neighborhoods where vulnerable populations are concentrated.
Federal prosecutors in the Western District of Washington must now prepare any related forfeiture actions or continue prosecutions of co-defendants still pending in the same ring. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will receive custody after the criminal sentence ends to execute removal.
This case is one of multiple federal sentencings in the Western District of Washington that have targeted fentanyl distribution networks operating inside Seattle. The Justice Department has pursued such cases under statutes prohibiting importation, distribution, and conspiracy involving Schedule II controlled substances.
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