Female couriers were used to transport pills in luggage from source in Arizona to Seattle and Baltimore airports
Yesterday, on August 21, the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office joined the FBI, the Tacoma Police Department and the Lakewood Police Department for a press conference on a 36-month long investigation into a large-scale drug trafficking operation. This investigation was led by the FBI’s South Sound Safe Streets Gang Task Force in partnership with Homeland Security Investigations, the Tacoma Police Department, the Lakewood Police Department, the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office, and the Washington State Department of Corrections.
Over the last 36 hours, law enforcement seized:
- Fentanyl – 2683.3g
- Cocaine – 227.9g
- Methamphetamine – 6,850.7g
- Heroin – 40.7g
- Marijuana – 27,593.8g
- Cash – $ 111,524.25
- Firearms – 23
Due to the quantity of drugs seized in this case, some defendants face a mandatory minimum ten years in prison if convicted.
This effort is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) operation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level criminal organizations that threaten the United States using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach.
We thank everyone involved for dedicating extensive hours of investigation into this case. Our streets in Pierce County are safer today because of it.