Woman in Lake Stevens restaurant drug scheme sentenced to 10 years

Woman with restaurant drug scheme sentenced to 10 years

A woman found guilty of dealing drugs from her Lake Stevens restaurant will now spend 10 years in prison.

SEATTLE - A Marysville woman who co-owned a Lake Stevens restaurant used for drug trafficking was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Friday.

According to a press release from the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), 46-year-old Laura Rodriguez-Moreno was sentenced for distributing meth, heroin and fentanyl at her restaurant, Fuente de Café.

Photos courtesy: United States Attorney's Office (Wester District of Washington)

According to records filed in the case, Rodriguez-Moreno and her husband 39-year-old Jose Morales-Flores were part of a wide-ranging drug trafficking conspiracy, where members distributed fentanyl, meth and heroin in the Seattle and North Puget Sound communities.

"Ms. Rodriguez-Moreno was distributing pound quantities of meth and thousands of fentanyl pills. But what is most shocking is that she has her teen-age son engaging in drug distribution at her direction," U.S. Attorney Nick Brown said. "She and her husband put their restaurant and the security of their five children at risk when they became drug traffickers. Now those children are without their parents for significant time."

Along with Rodriguez-Moreno, five other people were arrested in September 2020. When the arrest was made, law enforcement seized 17 kilos of meth, nearly two kilos of heroin, thousands of fentanyl pills, three firearms and more than $100,000 in cash.

In October 2021, Morales-Flores was sentenced to 10 years in prison. However, according to the DOJ, "instead of reporting to prison he cut off his GPS monitoring bracelet and became a fugitive." Law enforcement is still searching for Morales-Flores.

In her plea agreement, Rodriguez-Moreno admitted to distributing more than 16 kilos of meth and nearly a kilo of fentanyl pills.