United States Drug Enforcement Administration

TACOMA, Wash. – A 25-year-old Puyallup man, who also maintained an apartment in Seattle, was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Tacoma to 78 months in prison for drug trafficking and possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, announced U.S. Attorney Tessa M. Gorman. Emmanuel Xaiver Hunter was identified as a drug trafficker in October 2022 and was arrested in November 2022.  He pleaded guilty in April 2024. At the sentencing hearing Chief U.S. District Judge David G. Estudillo said, “These were very serious crimes and very serious firearms that you had,” and commented that the firearm Hunter was carrying in his waistband when he was arrested “could cause a lot of harm and damage.”

According to records filed in the case, the Drug Enforcement Administration, working with the Auburn Police Department, used a confidential source to purchase fentanyl pills from Hunter on two occasions. In early November 2022, after obtaining a court-authorized search warrant for Hunter’s homes, car and person, law enforcement arrested him and searched both his Puyallup home and downtown Seattle apartment.

Through the searches law enforcement seized 98,000 counterfeit oxycodone pills stamped with “M” and “30” and containing fentanyl, approximately 1.7 kilograms of fentanyl powder, 1.2 kilograms of cocaine, and five handguns. The handgun that Hunter carried when he was arrested was a Glock pistol equipped with an auto-sear so that it acted as an automatic weapon.

In his plea agreement, Hunter admitted that he carried the firearm in furtherance of his drug trafficking. That crime calls for a mandatory minimum of five years to run consecutive to any sentence imposed in the case.

Hunter will be on five years of supervised release following prison.

The case was investigated by the DEA and Auburn Police Department.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Max Shiner.

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