Final member of Western Washington-based drug trafficking ring sentenced

SEATTLE - A twice-convicted drug trafficker has been sentenced to 11 years in prison for his role in a Western Washington-based drug trafficking ring.

The U.S. District Court in Seattle announced Tuesday that 38-year-old Alan Gomez-Marentes was sentenced for conspiracy to distribute controlled substances and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Gomez-Marentes and 18 others were indicted in July 2020, following an 18-month wiretap investigation into a Western Washington-based drug trafficking ring. Gomez-Marentes is the final member of this drug trafficking ring to be sentenced.

The ring leader was sentenced to 17 years in prison earlier this month.

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The investigation led to law enforcement seizing 45 pounds of methamphetamine, 12 pounds of heroin, 3,200 fentanyl pills, 22 firearms and $566,391 in cash.

According to prosecutors, Gomez-Marentes ordered drug shipments, directed underlings to process drugs, and he and his sister laundered the trafficking money. He was heard on wiretapped calls ordering conspirators to get new phones or pack up materials to avoid police scrutiny, prosecutors say, and asking them to jump a trafficker who owed him money.

Gomez-Marentes, who is a Mexican citizen who also lived in Los Angeles and Tukwila, and was previously convicted in 2005 for trafficking cocaine at Washington State University. At the time, he was sentenced to five years in prison and then deported back to Mexico. There, he was convicted for another drug trafficking crime and sentenced to five years in prison, where he assisted drug dealers by translating with buyers in the U.S.

He illegally returned to Washington in 2019.

"Alan Gomez-Marentes played a central leadership role in this highly successful organization for at least 10 months," wrote prosecutors. "He oversaw all aspects of drug trafficking: he orchestrated loads of drugs from Mexico; he managed the conversion of liquid methamphetamine to crystal methamphetamine; he directed numerous redistributors, providing them drugs for delivery and collecting cash drug proceeds; and he laundered tens of thousands of dollars."