A Kent man and leader of a large drug trafficking group who tortured a co-conspirator to get information about a missing shipment of drugs, received a 15-year prison sentence for three federal felonies on Friday in U.S. District Court in Seattle.
Authorities arrested Ramon Zavala-Zazueta, 44, last August hiding in a closet of his residence with a loaded semi-automatic pistol. During the course of the investigation law enforcement seized more than 29 pounds of meth, more than 18 pounds of heroin, six pounds of cocaine, approximately $178,000 in cash and 16 firearms, including five assault rifles.
“What you’ve done is extraordinarily serious,” U.S. District Judge Marsha J. Pechman said at the hearing, according to a U.S. Attorney’s Office media release. “It is blight on the United States and on your home country of Mexico. …After you are released go back to Mexico and do not return.”
“No one wants to live in a community impacted by the drugs and violence that this defendant is responsible for,” said U.S. Attorney Annette L. Hayes. “I commend the federal, state and local law enforcement agencies that worked together to eliminate this threat from our midst. Western Washington is a better place because of their hard work.”
The investigation involved court authorized wire-taps and extensive surveillance of members of the criminal group who trafficked large amounts of heroin and methamphetamine to the Northwest from California and Mexico. When law enforcement moved in to make arrests they served search warrants on 17 residences, three storage facilities and more than a dozen vehicles tied to the criminal group.
Search warrants were executed in Auburn, Bellevue, SeaTac, Seattle, Tukwila, Renton, Kent, Port Orchard and Everett. In all, 22 defendants were charged in the case.
The investigation revealed that Zavala-Zazueta not only brought multiple-pound loads of meth and heroin into Western Washington, he was obtaining firearms and sending them south to Mexico where drug cartels used them in their drug trafficking activities. Zavala-Zazueta was at times trading drugs for stolen guns. Some of the firearms recovered were two AR-15 style rifles and two handguns.
Zavala-Zazueta used one of the handguns to threaten a co-conspirator who he thought had information about a lost load of methamphetamine. He brought the co-conspirator and later the co-conspirator’s wife to his residence, tied the man up with duct tape, beat him, put a gun to his head and used a red-hot knife to burn him. He tortured the man in an attempt to get information about the load of drugs he thought had been stolen.
The federal Drug Enforcement Administration, the FBI and the Seattle Police Department led the investigation.
The searches and arrests involved agents and officers from: Homeland Security Investigations – Seattle, Port of Seattle Police Department, Washington State Patrol, Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office, Snohomish Regional Drug And Gang Task Force, King County Sheriff’s Office, Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office, Lynnwood Police Department, Kent Police Department, Renton Police Department, Auburn Police Department, Tukwila Police Department, Federal Way Police Department and the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office.
Those sentenced in this case include:
Ediberto Asevez Santillano, 36, of Renton, 10 years
Brian Christensen, 40, of Port Orchard, 7 years
Will Edward Brambila, 27, of Kent, 4 years
Sendhy Amairany Felix Acevez, 22, of SeaTac, 3 years
Francisco Flores Penuelas, 44, of Kent, 3 years
Hanzel Knight, 43, of Auburn, 5 years
Heriberto Pacheco Juarez, 23, of Kent, 5 years
Alfonso Leos Villasenor, 21, of Kent, 5 years
Steven James Montgomery, 53, of Edmonds, 4 years
Ricardo Topete, 25, of Seattle, 4 years
Clarence Daniels, 36, of Kent, 7 years
Joseph Moore, 49, Kent, 5 years
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