OK, good morning, everybody.
Thank you for being here.
Thank you for giving me a few minutes to get my notes together.
I want to start with some thanks and I'm joined by City Attorney Ann Davidson and Council President Sarah Nelson from the City Council.
So on behalf of the City of Seattle, we want to thank, of course, U.S.
Attorney Tessa Gorman, who will be speaking after me and I'll try to give her the introduction she's worthy of and certainly FBI Special Agent Mike Harrington, DEA Special Agent in Charge David Reams, IRS Criminal Investigation Special Agent Adam Jobes and SBD Captain Steve Strand.
Thank you for joining us and I want to thank all of you for being here this morning.
So today We are here to announce the arrest and grand jury indictment of five people who are part of a violent drug trafficking organization that was dealing fentanyl, methamphetamines, cocaine, and heroin.
This drug trafficking group was preying on people experiencing homelessness in our Chinatown International District, including at encampments and locations such as 12th and Jackson.
They were taking advantage of vulnerable people who were unsheltered.
which is both disturbing and unacceptable.
This kind of coordinated effort with the agencies and the people standing with me are exactly the kind of strategies that we want to enforce.
I've said on other occasions, we will arrest when we think arrest makes sense.
We will clean areas where they need to be cleaned and we will treat people experiencing crises and mental illness and drug addiction as we should.
We've been clear all along that we need a dual public safety and public safety approach to make progress on the fentanyl crisis.
Focusing on arrests of people who are dealing drugs and helping people suffering from addiction get the treatment they need, this kind of dual strategy, you've just seen it in action.
This was of course a coordinated effort between the Seattle Police Department, the FBI, the DEA, and assistance from the IRS.
Yes, there are a lot of letters in what I just described.
That was the kind of effort we needed.
This enforcement action shows the power of partnership, collaboration, strategy, best practices.
I am grateful for this collaboration between SPD and these federal agencies to take drugs and guns out of our communities and make them safer.
At the end of the day, it is as simple as that.
Strategy, coordination, taking guns and drugs out of our community.
Again, I will end with a few words after we hear from our speakers, and I'm very excited to hear our U.S.
District Attorney Tessa Gorman to speak more about the charges that we're describing here today.
Tessa?
Thank you so much, Mayor Harrell.
It is so discordant to be in this beautiful park and to be talking about such extreme ugliness that has ravaged this community.
This is such a rich community, rich in culture, rich in language, rich in food, rich in experience, rich in diversity.
And this community has been under siege.
And we are here today to say that we will not tolerate the widespread and staggering criminal conduct that is happening in this beautiful community.
I want to underscore that community health and safety in Chinatown International District is a priority of the United States Attorney's Office for the Western District of Washington.
And I'm so proud to stand alongside these partners today and pledge again to you to partner with the city of Seattle, with our amazing Seattle Police Department, and with these great federal partners to pursue initiatives in this area in the coming year.
And there's no better example of these type of community impact work that we can do than the dismantling of what we are calling the Jungle Drug Trafficking Organization.
This is the impact work we do and will continue to do in this area.
Now, oftentimes I'm here talking to you about cartel connected drug organizations, and of course that remains a priority of the Department of Justice.
But what is also priority is drug traffickers who have significant impact on community safety, who are animated by extreme violence, and who prey upon the vulnerable.
And that is the case with the jungle drug trafficking organization.
So although the quantities of drugs are not the level we see with cartel connected groups, the impact on this community has been staggering.
And it is incorrect to use the term low level drug trafficking.
This is high impact drug trafficking and is important territory Chinatown International District for drug traffickers.
And although this case started in the encampments under I-5, very close to where we're standing, and that's why we refer to this group as a jungle drug trafficking organization, the reach and territory of this group runs throughout South Seattle.
And this territory is prime real estate for drug traffickers.
They have been turf route battles for this control of this area.
So this is high impact for our community.
And the jungle drug trafficking organization preyed upon some of our most vulnerable community members, unhoused, people with substance use disorders, people with mental health issues.
And this drug trafficking organization not only callously preyed upon these vulnerabilities, they in fact charge more money for the drugs to these vulnerable communities, more money than these drugs sell on the regular streets.
and this drug trafficking organization has a history of violence and use violence and the threats of violence to gain control of the drug trafficking in this area among these five defendants we seized a staggering 17 firearms we seized ar-15 style rifles semi-automatic pistols a firearm threaded to allow it to be equipped with a silencer short barreled rifles and body armor And so our messages today are clear.
We care deeply about what is happening in Chinatown International District, and community health and safety in this area is a priority of the Department of Justice.
We will prioritize drug trafficking organizations that prey upon the most vulnerable in our community.
And we will prioritize drug trafficking organizations that are marked by violence, including a demonstrated history of violence.
Our office has and will continue to devote resources to these priorities.
Celebrate Happiness is engraved on a beautiful George Lee lantern in this park.
And as I understand it, Hing He literally translates to Celebrate Happiness Public Park and figuratively translates to Park for Pleasurable Gatherings.
We are committed to ensuring that this is a place that our entire community can happily and safely gather.
I want to end by commending the law enforcement partners who did such great dedicated work to make this drug trafficking organizational dismantling a reality.
Our colleagues at the Seattle Police Department, FBI, DEA, IRS, and others were devoted so many resources and their skills and talents to making this happen.
I now want to introduce to you Mike Harrington, who's the FBI Special Agent in Charge, who will say a few words.
Thank you so much.
Thank you, Tessa, and good morning, everybody.
I'm Mike Harrington, the new Special Agent in Charge of the FBI's Seattle Field Office.
For my first press event here in Washington, I'm proud to highlight the work of the investigators in a case they've been pursuing for over a year now.
Since November of 2023, the FBI, the Seattle Police Department, and the Drug Enforcement Administration have been investigating a local drug distribution network with subjects residing in Seattle, Kent, and Newcastle.
What makes this case different from our typical drug takedowns is instead of starting with the target and intercepting large quantities of drugs, we began with a particular neighborhood experiencing a drug problem.
As we looked into that problem, we found the same names were mentioned repeatedly.
These individuals were selling dose quantities of methamphetamine, cocaine, and fentanyl to numerous customers in the encampments and high drug areas of the International District of Seattle, including the jungle underneath I-5.
The defendants indicted today are part of the jungle drug trafficking organization.
This group is not just trafficking dangerous drugs into the jungle, it is violent.
And the investigators believe they're responsible for numerous shootings, robberies, and arsons.
The impact to the community is substantial, not just because of the drugs seized in this case, but because this organization took advantage of many people's addictions, homelessness, and other vulnerabilities, often using violence or the threat of violence.
It is no surprise that the search warrants yesterday resulted in the recovery of more than a dozen firearms.
We'll continue to pursue drug trafficking organizations exploring vulnerable populations and remove dangerous individuals from our communities to keep Seattle safer.
When investigating a case like this, partnerships are vital.
The Seattle Police Department and DEA played critical roles in this investigation.
I'd also like to recognize the contributions of the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, King County Sheriff's Office, and Tukwila Police Department.
And I'll now hand it over to Captain Steve Strand, Seattle Police Department.
Good morning.
I'm Captain Steve Strand from the Seattle Police Department's Major Investigation Section.
I want to take a moment to thank both of our detectives who worked tirelessly on this case as well as our regional partners from Newcastle, Auburn, Kent, and Renton.
The Seattle Police Department will continue to work tirelessly to address these drug trafficking in order to make Seattle a welcoming and safe place for all.
The removal of these narcotics and firearms from the streets will do just that.
Now I'd like to ask Mayor Harold to come back up to the podium.
Thank you.
Thank you, Captain.
Mike, U.S. Attorney, District Attorney Gorman, thank you very much for your leadership and your execution.
I'll close with a few remarks and then I will open it up for questions.
So many of you are following our strategies.
In November, we expanded our downtown activation team, DAT team, to the CID in Little Saigon, taking a coordinated approach to disrupt illegal and dangerous activities.
One early marker of our success in our execution is the coordinated law enforcement with SPD, where it led to over a dozen arrests for selling narcotics in December and 10 more arrests earlier this month.
We've made it clear that to protect all communities, and I emphasize all communities, we are not afraid to make lawful constitutional arrests when they are necessary to keep our communities safe.
and we are very proud of the partners that you see here with the other agencies that clearly demonstrate that same kind of commitment.
As part of our debt work, our outreach workers are also coordinating referrals to detox treatment with new dedicated beds at Valley City's Recovery Place.
There you will see beds serving up to 150 people.
Our city, Seattle, was the first city in the nation to equip our firefighters and our EMTs with biprenorphine, giving our first responders another tool to save lives.
In our budget we presented, we invested over $14.5 million to address the opioid crisis, a three-fold increase in this strategy.
And that's why Council President Sarah Nelson and her leadership in the city council are implementing policy and legislative solutions and working with our city attorney, Ann Davidson, our city, the other three quarters of our city government are strategizing to make sure we keep communities safe and treat those who need treated.
You'll also see that we are deploying new technology, a pilot to deploy more tools like CCTV cameras to prevent and solve crimes in our neighborhoods earlier this year and we've made lighting enhancements that you see and environmental design improvements to deter crime.
Both from physical assets to policy implementations, we will do what is necessary to save lives and to treat people and to make of the rest when they are needed.
I transmitted an ordinance to the City Council focused on disrupting retail theft and illegal vending of stolen goods in public.
That is a persistent challenge in the CID and we're gonna confront that head on.
The change both within the city and the changes that we are committed to with the partners standing up here, we want the CID community and the entire city to know these changes won't happen overnight.
We study best practices around the country.
We are committed to saving lives, treating people, and making sure everything we do is within the four corners of the law.
This is consistent, effective, and a proactive strategy that we are trying to describe to make sure the people in this city and in this region know we are doing it the right way.
And with that, we'll entertain a few questions from the press, should you have any.
You're not a member for the press, but I'll tell you what, hold tight, my brother, and I may come to you.
Okay, you are gonna get shot at it, but yes, sir.
I'll go here and I'll come to you, sir.
How do we first become aware of this particular demographic that we targeted?
Would someone like to tackle that?
I can take that one.
So we've been aware of the problem in this neighborhood, in this area for a while.
The drug problem, the threats of violence.
So we began investigation on that basis.
And as we went through the investigative techniques, obviously we're talking to people.
We're exercising our investigative techniques.
And the same five names kept coming up over and over again.
So that kind of solidified this investigation into these individuals.
Thank you.
Can you clarify that this is not cartel weaponized?
Can you get into, like, the organizational structure and why you make the different states do that?
Sure.
So we at the Department of Justice often focuses on these large cartel connected organizations.
And by that, I mean organizations that are trafficking in massive quantities, you know, hundreds of kilograms, hundreds of thousands of pills.
This is not that organization.
The quantities aren't that high.
And what I'm trying to make a point is. that it still is impactful for our community.
So the quantities are lower, but it's no less impactful than when we do these large cartel-connected organizations.
And that's our strategy, is both making sure we're addressing cartel-connected organizations, keeping drugs out of our community, but also making sure the drug traffickers who are trafficking in our communities are held to account as well.
So it's a dual approach.
Do you feel that it's a small number of people having a large impact even so it's making you expect to count?
Well, I think in most crime, we have a small amount of people doing a lot of the damage, and certainly this group is an example of that.
This drug trafficking organization, we've charged right now five individuals.
They had an enormous impact in this area, and that's why we targeted them at the U.S.
Attorney's Office.
I'll turn that over to Special Agent Dave Reams from the DEA.
Thank you.
Hi, so we tend not to put a monetary value on the drugs we seized, but what I can tell you is the quantity of fentanyl powder we seized in this case was enough to potentially kill 1.7 million people.
That's an outsized influence for a group of five individuals.
The entire organization continues to be under investigation.
Well, uh,
I wouldn't say anything we're doing is unconventional, but I would say that we are trying to both stay consistent on our strategies.
To reset community norms and safety norms, you have to do it consistently.
So we think our strategies are working.
Now, we all know that people who are sick that are drug addicted, they also need treatment.
So one of the strategies that you will see that is not unconventional, it's very conventional, is just continuing to build more places for people to go when our police officers have to make arrests.
And that's an area that we want to increase this year when we're looking at strongly working with the county, working strongly on how we can enhance that.
And that's why I mentioned one of the facilities in my notes.
Yes, sir.
Well, I'll say a message to anyone that's listening.
Seattle is a beautiful city.
It's an emerald city.
We treasure lives here.
We're a city of innovation.
And the poison in the streets should not be here.
Fentanyl, methamphetamine, this is poison that are killing our children, our young adults, hurting our businesses.
And that is not Seattle, that is not this region.
And we work collaboratively here.
I believe every person's standing with me.
Well, I have a little favoritism, those with the city in particular.
In all seriousness, everyone's standing with me today.
I'm proud to be one of their partners, that we are standing up and saying in this region, we want it to be safe.
We want people to get treatment.
But the drug trafficking, not here.
Yeah, so my message to the residents here and the small businesses here is that we are here with you right now today because we hear you.
We want this place to be the gem that it is, vibrant, open businesses, people walking here, spending their money, living here safely, that this is a gem.
This part of the city is a gem.
It will not be unrecognized.
It will be recognized for the gem that it is.
And we will continue with our strategies on both arresting people, cleaning up areas, and treating people aggressively.
And we hear you again.
We see you.
Thank you very much.
I think I'm going to shut it down.
We got one more.
Yes, sir.
I like to pass around three days a week, and so now there's a lot of talking about making it more secure for drivers.
What about for passengers?
We can have a fortress for the drivers, but then passengers are dealing with people in the buses, making situations unsanitary, dangerous.
There is no fare enforcement.
There is very little private security.
It's very messy.
So the question has to do with Metro and the county transit system, and we don't have a representative from the county, but I'm going to have a few bars because I had a meeting with our King County executive yesterday, Dow Constantine, and he and I both agree with your concern about transit ridership and safety.
So in addition to protecting our drivers that is critically important, and we talked about barrier types of things that you mentioned.
We have to, again, there's Metro Police, there's Seattle Police, and so we have to improve how we coordinate safety conditions on transit.
We put in, I wanna say, $8 million in our transportation levy, particularly for that effort.
See, what can we do to protect transit riders?
My middle son is a frequent transit rider, and I hear it all the time about some of the safety conditions.
So again, we hear you.
We are putting money in the budget, and I'm confident that the county will work with the city on improving the ridership experience.
I share your concerns.
Thank you very much.
Thank you again for being here, and everyone, let's try to make it a great day.
Thank you very much.