Fed Raid of PNW Cartel Affiliates Yields Thousands of Pounds of Meth, 43 Guns, a Million in Cash

US Attorney brings down hammer, hitting three interconnected NW drug rings with Federal charges Wednesday

A law enforcement drug dog proudly stands post next to some of the more than one thousand pounds of drugs seized during this Federal bust. Photo: DOJ release.

Editor’s Note: Yesterday we published a story detailing a local law enforcement task force raid of an abandoned apartment that yielded $1.5m in drugs. I know this amount shocked some readers, as did my assertion that Snohomish County is cartel territory. Unfortunately, this is just an uncomfortable fact. And, as we discussed yesterday, there’s hundreds of stash houses for each one that’s raided — and $1.5 million in drugs is a rounding error for these organizations. To whit, today’s story details a federal bust of NW cartel activity. This bust includes over A THOUSAND OF POUNDS of methamphetamine and 330,000 M-30 pills. Not to mention over a million in cash. The J425 is dedicated to shedding more light on this topic for several reasons: first, we just can’t let 70,000 fellow citizens die each year from a preventable cause without raising one hell of a stink about it; and second, we need to better understand what our local law enforcement is dealing with so we can better equip and staff them — assuming people want to get serious about this fent epidemic. If you do, the first step is knowledge. We’ll try and keep you better informed - KH

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Feds: Eleven people arrested in Washington and California in connection with cartel connected drug trafficking schemes

“These individuals were bringing large loads of meth, heroin, fentanyl and cocaine from Mexico across the border and up I-5 to the Pacific Northwest. Even when an RV loaded with drugs was pulled off the highway and seized by law enforcement, they weren’t deterred. The wiretap revealed various organizations continued to recruit drivers and vehicles to transport their drugs throughout our District.”

- U.S. Attorney Nick Brown

Three significant drug trafficking groups responsible for trafficking more than 1,000 pounds of methamphetamine and hundreds of thousands of fentanyl pills into Western Washington are facing federal charges, announced U.S. Attorney Nick Brown Wednesday in Seattle.

One agent attached to the arrests estimated that there were enough fatally-dosed fake perc pills (M-30s) to kill 132,000 people.