Thirty-year-old Michael Lopez Ferrel of Salinas, California, who journeyed frequently to Eastern Washington carrying illegal drugs from Mexico, has been sentenced to prison.
He will spend the next nine years behind bars after the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) Tri-Cities office opened an investigation, the Tri-City Herald reported Monday.
A confidential informant working with the DEA who knew Ferrel was a critical part of the investigation, the outlet continued:
Ferrel told the informant in a phone call that he had been traveling from Mexico to Yakima every week with 180 to 220 pounds of methamphetamine, according to prosecutors.
The informant arranged to meet Ferrel at a Pasco storage unit, under the watch of DEA and Tri-City Metro Drug Task Force officers, in March 2022.
The informant had told Ferrel that he could bring him up to 20 pounds of methamphetamine at $2,000 a pound and also had 500 fentanyl pills.
When Ferrel arrived in Pasco without any drugs, he spoke with the informant about cutting the price if he was not required to deliver.
They planned to meet the following day at a location in Prosser to pick up ten pounds of methamphetamine. Ferrel apparently gave the man the substance in zip-lock bags.
The informant then set up another meeting to pay Ferrel. It was at that meeting that officials arrested Ferrel. Authorities served two search warrants at two Sunnyside residences. Inside one of the homes, officials found 10.5 pounds of meth, a digital scale, a loaded pistol, and $32,182.
“Mr. Ferrel was part of a transnational drug trafficking scheme and was responsible for transporting massive amounts of illegal narcotics into Eastern Washington and distributing those drugs into our community,” stated U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Washington Vanessa Waldref.
Judge Mary Dimke also sentenced the man to five years probation in the case, the Herald report noted.
Special Agent in Charge David F. Reames said:
The Drug Enforcement Administration and our Federal, state, tribal and local partners, strive to keep us all safe from those who would prey on our communities. This sentence against a methamphetamine and fentanyl trafficker proves our resolve to stop traffickers like Mr. Ferrel wherever they operate.
Michael Lopez Ferrel, age 30, of Salinas, California, was sentenced to nine years in federal prison for trafficking fentanyl and methamphetamine. @USAO_EDWA @FBISeattle @DEASpokane @CBPNorthwest
— DEASeattle (@DEASEATTLEDiv) February 8, 2024
>>https://t.co/6xrcNbAL3e pic.twitter.com/Vyvds0NvCA
In October, Breitbart News reported that authorities said a policeman had used fentanyl and methamphetamine and overdosed on August 10 in Battle Ground, Washington, a loss that devastated leadership.
During a December interview, Arizona Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate Kari Lake told Breitbart News Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow that fentanyl being brought over the open border is a “weapon of mass destruction.”
WATCH — Kari Lake: Fentanyl Coming Across “Wide Open Border” Is a “Weapon of Mass Destruction”
Matt Perdie / Breitbart News