United States Drug Enforcement Administration

Seattle – A 37-year-old Mexican national, a former resident of Issaquah, Washington, was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Seattle to six years in prison for his role in an armed drug trafficking ring that sought drug customers in Seattle’s homeless encampments and International District. Giovanni Antonio Garduno Garcia was arrested in May 2025 following a law enforcement investigation of trafficking narcotics to vulnerable people living unhoused near Seattle’s Chinatown-International District.  On March 9, 2026, Garduno Garcia pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute controlled substances and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. At the sentencing hearing today, U.S. District Judge Tana Lin said, “You were dealing drugs so dangerous that they have resulted in thousands and thousands of deaths across this country… And you were solely motivated by personal profit and greed.”

“Fentanyl traffickers prey on the most vulnerable members of our communities, valuing profit over human life,” said Robert A. Saccone, Special Agent in Charge, DEA Seattle Field Division. “Mr. Garduno Garcia distributed deadly fentanyl and other dangerous drugs in Seattle’s Chinatown International District. DEA and our law enforcement partners remain relentless in our pursuit of those who profit from peddling poison. Every fentanyl seizure, every trafficking network dismantled, and every conviction brings us one step closer to a Fentanyl Free America.”

“This defendant trafficked drugs simply for the money,” said First Assistant U.S. Attorney Neil Floyd. “He lived in the Seattle suburbs with high end cars, drugs, and $93,000 in cash stashed in his residence. He enjoyed the high life while spreading misery in the form of fentanyl and cocaine to those gripped with addiction. And he did so armed with firearms and body armor. The community will be safer after he serves his sentence and is returned to his home country of Mexico.”

“This man tormented our Chinatown-International District neighborhood and the broader Seattle community. He targeted some of our city’s most vulnerable residents, which is reprehensible,” said Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes. “I am incredibly proud of our officers, and federal partners, for their tireless work on this case and bringing this criminal to justice.”

According to records filed in the case, fourteen people were arrested in late May 2025, on two separate indictments charging them with trafficking cocaine, heroin, fentanyl, and methamphetamine from California into the Western District of Washington. The fourteen arrested in late May 2025 followed the arrest of five others in January 2025 for firearm and drug trafficking activities connected to Seattle’s Chinatown-International District neighborhood and nearby encampments. 

On May 29, 2025, law enforcement executed 16 search warrants in Federal Way, Vancouver, Everett, Pacific, Tukwila, Kent, Issaquah, Seattle, Woodlake, California and Beaverton, Oregon.  Investigators seized more than seven kilograms of cocaine, 18 kilograms of methamphetamine, more than 57,000 fentanyl pills, and 17 firearms. They also seized more than $353,000 in cash.

In Garduno Garcia’s residence they seized cocaine, fentanyl-laced pills, and fentanyl powder. Along with the controlled substances, investigators found two semiautomatic firearms, additional magazines and ammunition, body armor, and over $93,000 in cash drug proceeds. Investigators also seized two vehicles, a Mercedes Benz and a Dodge Durango that were proceeds of Garduno Garcia’s drug trafficking activities. All the seized items have been forfeited to the government.

The scope of this drug trafficking scheme involving all the defendants was huge. In March 2025 alone, law enforcement seized 100 pounds of methamphetamine, 111 kilos of cocaine, 19 kilos of fentanyl powder, 250,000 fentanyl pills, and four kilos of heroin. The street value of the narcotics was nearly $3 million.

In asking for a six-year prison sentence prosecutors noted the damage drug trafficking does to our community with increased violence and the loss of loved ones to addiction. “Garduno Garcia actively participated in flooding the community with these deadly and addictive substances. Garduno Garcia was intercepted communicating with multiple co-defendants for large quantities of cocaine and was found to possess various substances, including fentanyl, in his residence for redistribution. And unlike those who are distributing to the community to support their own addiction, Garduno Garcia distributed solely for financial gain. Garduno Garcia admitted that he became involved in drug trafficking for “quick money,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Casey Conzatti wrote in the sentencing memo to the court.

“Mr. Garduno Garcia chose a lavish lifestyle over a law-abiding one, distributing kilogram quantities of cocaine and fentanyl, destroying lives for a profit as evidenced by the luxury vehicles and huge amounts of money at his residence,” said W. Mike Herrington, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Seattle field office. “Tragically, our communities and some of their most vulnerable members pay the price of drug trafficking in the form of addictions, overdoses, and violence. The FBI and our partners will continue to combat drug trafficking and violent crime in Seattle and across the state of Washington.”

The investigation was led by the FBI, Seattle Police Department and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) with significant assistance from the Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas program (HIDTA), Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), and Washington National Guard Counterdrug Program. Investigators also worked with the Oregon State Police, Centralia Police Department, and Clark County, Washington Sheriff’s Office.

This investigation is part of the Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) initiative established by Executive Order 14159, Protecting the American People Against Invasion. The HSTF is a whole-of-government partnership dedicated to eliminating criminal cartels, foreign gangs, transnational criminal organizations, and human smuggling and trafficking rings operating in the United States and abroad. Through historic interagency collaboration, the HSTF directs the full might of United States law enforcement towards identifying, investigating, and prosecuting the full spectrum of crimes committed by these organizations, which have long fueled violence and instability within our borders. The HSTF further utilizes all available tools to prosecute and remove the most violent criminal aliens from the United States. HSTF Seattle comprises agents and officers from Homeland Security Investigations, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), The United States Marshals Service (USMS), the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigations (IRS-CI), the United States Secret Service (USSS), U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and the U.S. Coast Guard Investigative Service, with the prosecution being led by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington. 

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