SEATTLE – Six members of a drug distribution conspiracy operating in Whatcom, Skagit and Snohomish counties are charged federally with various drug and firearms crimes. On Wednesday, in searches of eight locations in Whatcom and Snohomish Counties, law enforcement seized: 85,000 fentanyl pills, 2.3 kilograms fentanyl powder, 6.2 kilograms methamphetamine...

Seattle – A 31-year-old Renton, Washington man was sentenced this week in U.S. District Court in Seattle to ten years in prison for his role in a violent, cartel connected drug distribution ring, announced U.S. Attorney Nick Brown. Benjamin Fuentes was indicted in July 2020, along with more than a...

SEATTLE – Three significant drug trafficking groups responsible for trafficking more than 1,000 pounds of methamphetamine and hundreds of thousands of fentanyl pills are facing federal charges tonight. Federal investigators and local law enforcement partners seized two RVs packed with meth and fake pills after they were driven from California...

SEATTLE – The drug supplier to multiple members of a drug trafficking group distributing fentanyl, heroin, methamphetamine, and cocaine throughout the Puget Sound region was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Seattle to ten years in prison, announced U.S. Attorney Nick Brown. Rodrigo Alvarez-Quinonez, 31, of Selma, California, was...

SPOKANE, Wash. – Vanessa R. Waldref, the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Washington, announced today that Aurelio James Gonzalez, 30, of Kennewick Washington was sentenced in federal court in Spokane for two counts of Distribution of Methamphetamine. Chief United States District Judge Stanley A. Bastian sentenced Gonzales...

COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho – Sean Robert Wathen, 50, was sentenced in United States District Court for conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine. District Court Judge B. Lynn Winmill sentenced Wathen to 138 months in prison and ordered him to serve an additional five years of supervised release. According to court records and...

POCATELLO, Idaho – Melvin Misael Alcaraz-Valdez, of Declo, Idaho, was sentenced to federal prison for possession with the intent to distribute methamphetamine, announced U.S. Attorney Josh Hurwit, today. Chief U.S. District Judge David C. Nye sentenced Alcaraz-Valdez to 135 months. 11 years, 3 months. Alcaraz-Valdez, upon completion of his time...

SEATTLE – A top leader of a violent international drug trafficking organization that distributed heroin, fentanyl, and methamphetamine in the Puget Sound region, pleaded guilty this week in U.S. District Court in Seattle. Luis Arturo Magana-Ramirez, 34, of Fife, Washington, faces a mandatory minimum ten years in prison and up...

SEATTLE – The Arlington, Washington based leader of a prolific and violent drug trafficking ring pleaded guilty this week to federal drug, gun, and money laundering crimes, announced U.S. Attorney Nick Brown. Cesar Valdez-Sanudo, 36, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and carrying...

SPOKANE, Wash. – On June 3, 2022, United States District Judge Salvador Mendoza, Jr., sentenced Lorenzo Jimenez Alanis, 47, of Mabton, Washington, to 15 years in federal prison for distributing methamphetamine, along with downloading and possessing a large collection of child pornography. Judge Mendoza also ordered Alanis to serve five...