A U.S. District Court judge on Tuesday sentenced the final member of a drug distribution conspiracy, which included a Kent man, to four years in prison.
Alex Bremmer Abelson, 26, of Tacoma, is the sixth defendant sentenced in the case, according to a U.S. Attorney’s Office media release. Law enforcement agencies arrested Abelson in a home containing significant amounts of heroin and methamphetamine as well as 11 firearms.
Abelson has a prior felony conviction that precludes him from possessing firearms, and was on Washington Department of Corrections supervision at the time of his arrest. At the sentencing hearing, U.S. District Judge Ronald B. Leighton focused on “the rapidity with which the defendant goes from event to event, crime scene to crime scene, without catching his breath … he’s a persistent criminal.”
The conspirators distributed heroin and methamphetamine throughout King and Pierce counties. In 2014, local law enforcement began investigating the drug trafficking activities of Michael Duane Humburgs. The Drug Enforcement Administration joined the investigation in early 2016, as investigators learned that the organization was increasing the quantities of drugs it was spreading in the community.
When law enforcement executed search warrants on the case on April 29, 2016, they seized large amounts of heroin, methamphetamine, fentanyl, Viagra, anabolic steroids, cocaine, oxycodone and ecstasy. The search warrants resulted in the seizure of $137,000 in cash and 15 firearms.
Earlier this month, Humburgs, 42, of Federal Way and leader of the conspiracy, was sentenced to six years in prison for being a felon in possession of a firearm.
The other members of the drug trafficking organization were sentenced earlier this year for drug-related offenses.
Jim Marks, 46, of Kent, was sentenced to five years in prison; Diallo Redd, 45, of Tacoma, was sentenced to four years in prison; Rafael Lugo, 42, of Tacoma, was sentenced to three years; and Charles Traylor, 45, of Seattle, was sentenced to two years.
The case was investigated by the DEA, the King County Sheriff’s Office and the Federal Way Police Department.
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