A drug supplier to multiple members of a drug trafficking group distributing fentanyl, heroin, methamphetamine, and cocaine from Mexico to the Puget Sound region was sentenced in U.S. District Court to ten years in prison.
Rodrigo Alvarez-Quinonez and his conspirators engaged in trafficking activities from Mexico, through California, Arizona, Nevada, and Oregon, and into the North Puget Sound region.
Alvarez-Quinonez, age 31, of Selma, California, was convicted following a jury trial in June 2022. Alvarez-Quinonez, was one of twelve people arrested in August 2020 following a year-long wiretap investigation.
At the sentencing hearing U.S. District Judge Ricardo S. Martinez said, “The defendant was at the top of a large-scale conspiracy to distribute illegal, dangerous, and deadly drugs in the Western District of Washington. One would have to be living under a rock to not know the impact that fentanyl is having on our society, given that deaths from fentanyl have skyrocketed.”
Alvarez-Quinonez was heard on wiretaps directing others to pick-up and deliver drugs. In January 2020 Alverez-Quinonez was arrested when he was stopped in a car with nearly 2 kilos of fentanyl hidden in a secret compartment.
In recommending a lengthy prison sentence, prosecutors wrote to the court, “Alvarez-Quinonez was working as a narcotics source-of-supply, he directed others to pick up and deliver shipments of narcotics, he purchased narcotics in bulk and transported narcotics to this State. Alvarez-Quinonez then fulfilled orders for others who wanted narcotics and at times directed others to deliver narcotics on his behalf.”
In addition to the fentanyl pills, during the investigation law enforcement seized more than six pounds of heroin and nearly nine pounds of methamphetamine.
On the day of the takedown in August 2020, law enforcement seized: nearly 6 pounds of methamphetamine, 8 pounds of heroin, 7,500 pills likely tainted with fentanyl, over $100,000 in cash, 4 firearms, and vehicles outfitted with “traps”—hiding places for smuggling drugs and money.