Leader of Washington-based international drug trafficking ring sentenced to 17 years
SEATTLE - The leader of a violent, international drug trafficking ring based out of Western Washington was sentenced to 17 years in prison.
The U.S. District Court in Seattle sentenced 35-year-old Luis Arturo Magana-Ramirez on Tuesday. Magana-Ramirez led an organization that trafficked more than 120 pounds of meth into Western Washington, as well as large amounts of heroin, fentanyl pills and cocaine. Magana-Ramirez also pursued those who owed drug debts to the organization. Federal law enforcement says they heard Magana-Ramirez on a wiretap threatening to beat or murder those who owed him money.
He pleaded guilty in 2022 and admitted to leading the drug ring, which has been linked to the CJNG cartel in Mexico.
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"This defendant had a successful career as a contractor until he succumbed to the dark allure of drug money," said Acting U.S. Attorney Tessa Gorman. "He not only flooded our communities with dangerous drugs, he sought out firearms to impose his will on rivals and debtors and to keep the dollars flowing to him and to his bosses in the cartel. He has earned this lengthy prison term."
When Magana-Ramirez was arrested on July 28, 2020, he possessed two firearms – one reported stolen, and the other with an erased serial number. As a Mexican national who illegally traveled to the U.S., he could not legally possess firearms, a crime that carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison.
"Magana-Ramirez oversaw the redistribution of hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of drugs in our community. He drove the success of this drug trafficking organization through fear by organizing, directing, and arming subordinates and himself, and then using threats and violent confrontations to ensure that the DTO and its members continued to turn profits," prosecutors wrote. "Month after month, investigators intercepted Magana-Ramirez and his coconspirators plotting to kidnap and murder debtors, and even fellow DTO members."