A Renton man was sentenced to 13 years in prison for his role in a drug trafficking ring connected to Aryan prison gangs.

The Western District of Washington U.S. Department of Justice reported Feb. 20 that Renton resident Shawn Ellis, 32, was sentenced to 13 years in prison for his role in drug trafficking following a two-year federal investigation.

The FBI led the investigation with investigative teamwork from the Drug Enforcement Administration, Homeland Security Investigations, the Washington State Department of Corrections and significant local assistance from the Tacoma Police Department, Pierce County Sheriff’s Office, and the Thurston County Narcotics Task Force, led by the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office.

According to the report, Ellis was a prolific drug redistributor, obtaining drugs from one branch of the drug conspiracy and then selling them to customers for profit. The report said Ellis would order as much as 30 pounds of methamphetamine at a time, and when he was arrested, agents seized buckets of fentanyl, methamphetamine, cocaine and fake Xanax — a prescription benzodiazepine.

The report states that Ellis was found to have four firearms, including a fully automatic assault rifle, and Ellis also carried four firearms in his car to protect his drugs. According to the report, Ellis had a loaded pistol between the driver’s seat and center console, an SK-15 rifle hidden in a violin case, a shotgun and a second loaded pistol, and body armor in the vehicle.

“This rifle proved to be a machine gun that fires fully automatically,” prosecutors wrote to the court when asking for a 15-year sentence. “As a felon, Ellis could not legally possess any firearms, much less a silencer or a machine gun.”

A further search, according to the department, revealed that in Ellis’s storage shed, he had five additional firearms, a large amount of ammunition, body armor and a homemade silencer. He also had other proceeds of his drug trafficking in the shed, including cash, jewelry, precious metals, coins and other collectibles.

According to the report, Ellis’s arrest was part of a March 22, 2023, operation where law enforcement arrested two dozen people on federal charges. The coordinated takedown involved ten SWAT teams and more than 350 law enforcement officers.

During the coordinated takedown, law enforcement seized 177 firearms, more than 10 kilos of methamphetamine, 11 kilos of fentanyl pills and more than a kilo of fentanyl powder, three kilos of heroin and more than $330,000 in cash from 18 locations in Washington and Arizona, the report stated. Earlier in the investigation, law enforcement seized 830,000 fentanyl pills, five and a half pounds of fentanyl powder, 223 pounds of methamphetamine, three and a half pounds of heroin, five pounds of cocaine, $388,000 in cash, and 48 firearms, the report said.

According to the report, the top-level leader of the drug trafficking ring, Jesse Bailey, is scheduled to be sentenced on June 13, and his wife and co-conspirator, Candace Bailey, is scheduled for sentencing on May 16, 2025.

A bucket of fentanyl and guns seized from Shawn Ellis. Photos courtesy of the U.S. Attorney’s Office