Honduran National Who Exposed His Infant to Fentanyl Sentenced to Six Years in Prison for Repeated Arrests for Trafficking Fentanyl
Infant had to be Revived with Narcan Following Fentanyl Exposure in Puyallup
SEATTLE – A 37-year-old man who was living in a Des Moines, Washington, hotel, was sentenced Monday in U.S. District Court in Seattle to six years in prison and three years of supervised release for drug and gun crimes, announced First Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles Neil Floyd. Dennis Aguilar Huisa was arrested three times over 15 months for possession of fentanyl pills and/or powder, methamphetamine, cocaine, and a firearm. After the third arrest Huisa was federally indicted and has been in custody since November 1, 2024.
At Monday's sentencing hearing U.S. District Judge John C. Chun said fentanyl “is so dangerous and has destroyed so many lives…. He must have known that he was putting himself and his family at risk.”
According to records filed in the case, Puyallup Police first contacted Huisa on the side of the road in the early hours of August 15, 2023. Huisa said his car had overheated and he and a passenger were waiting for the engine to cool down. The police officer noticed that the license plate on the car did not match the type of vehicle listed in the registration. Huisa was removed from the car while law enforcement determined whether the car or the license plates were stolen. A second officer noticed blue pills in the car. Ultimately the car was impounded. A search revealed that there were about 1,000 fentanyl pills as well as some suspected fentanyl powder. There was also a scale with drug residue in the car.
On September 7, 2024, Puyallup Police responded to a report of a nine-month-old infant who had stopped breathing. Huisa and a woman met the officers outside a box truck the infant in their arms. Law enforcement worked to get the child to respond and breathe, Central Pierce Fire and Rescue responded and continued to work on providing aid to the child.
The law enforcement investigation found evidence that Huisa had given the infant two doses of Narcan suspecting that the child had been exposed to fentanyl or other drugs. Huisa gave permission to search the box truck. Law enforcement located approximately 115 blue fentanyl pills. On Huisa they found fentanyl powder and over $16,000 in cash.
The infant was taken to Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital. The child was given additional doses of Narcan, and the child’s blood tested positive for fentanyl, amphetamine, and oxycodone. The child survived.
Finally, on November 1, 2024, Auburn Police Department’s Special Investigations Unit served a search warrant on the Des Moines motel where Huisa had been living. In the hotel room they found small packages of fentanyl powder packaged for sale. Huisa had been attempting to flush it down the toilet when he heard law enforcement arrive. Officers found additional fentanyl powder, methamphetamine, and cocaine in other places around the room. Officers once again searched the box truck Huisa had been driving and found two kilograms of fentanyl powder and a Polymer 80 ‘ghost gun’ – a gun made without a serial number.
Huisa was charged by criminal complaint on March 12, 2025. He was indicted by the grand jury on March 26, 2025. On November 12, 2025, Huisa pleaded guilty to possession of controlled substances with intent to distribute, possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, and money laundering. The financial investigation revealed that between July 2022 and September 2024, Huisa had made about $370,000 in cash deposits to his bank account – the proceeds of drug dealing.
Monday, Huisa told the court he was “very ashamed and cannot forgive myself for what I have done to my daughter… I did not come here to deal drugs.”
In asking for an eight-and-a-half-year sentence prosecutors wrote to the court, “Huisa was contacted by law enforcement on three different occasions and continued to engage in his drug trafficking activities, to the detriment of his infant daughter. Huisa appeared to be undeterred following the overdose of his child and continued to engage in the distribution of controlled substances.”
Huisa will likely be deported to Honduras following his prison sentence.
The case was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Puyallup Police Department, the Auburn Police Department, and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Criminal Investigation (CI).
###
