Former Mexican attorney sentenced for WA drug ring

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((U.S. Attorney's Office))

SEATTLE - A former Mexican attorney was sentenced to more than seven years in prison for his role in a drug trafficking ring connected to an Aryan prison gang.

The U.S. Attorney's Office (USAO) announced that on Friday, 38-year-old Gustavo Castellanos-Tapia of Burien was sentenced to 90 months in prison for conspiracy to distribute controlled substances. Castellanos-Tapia was indicted along with 23 others in March 2023 for trafficking meth, fentanyl, cocaine and heroin into Washington.

According to court records, Castellanos-Tapia was formerly a lawyer in Mexico, before illegally traveling to the U.S. in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, when work slowed. He worked briefly as a boat painter, then got into drug dealing to make more money.

Unlike his co-conspirators, attorneys say Castellanos-Tapia was not a drug user.

During their investigation, detectives surveilled Castellanos-Tapia and learned he would deliver suitcases with 30–40 pounds of meth every few weeks.

Agents seized some 255 pounds of meth, 830,000 fentanyl pills, 26 lbs of fentanyl powder, cocaine, six lbs of heroin, $668,000 in drug money and 225 firearms.

"Drugs like the methamphetamine that Castellanos-Tapia distributed have a devastating impact on the community," prosecutors wrote, asking for a nine-year prison sentence. "Users of these drugs frequently resort to stealing—from family members, friends, and complete strangers—to feed their addictions. No doubt, drug users are responsible for a large percentage of these crimes, as well as the violent crimes, in our communities."

Castellanos-Tapia will likely be deported after his prison term, prosecutors say, as he was illegally in the U.S.