Co-Defendant also Sentenced to 7 Years in 2014
The second of two King County residents who was convicted, in absentia, of Conspiracy to Distribute Ecstasy in 2009, was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Seattle to seven years in prison, announced U.S. Attorney Annette L. Hayes. KAUSHAL KAINTH, 27, formerly of Renton, Washington, failed to appear in the middle of the third day of his trial - fleeing before closing arguments could begin. KAINTH was ultimately arrested in Canada and returned to the U.S. for sentencing in January 2016. KAINTH’s co-defendant, Hardeep Singh, 25, formerly of Kent, Washington, fled following the first day of trial, and was arrested in Canada in 2013 and sentenced to seven years in prison in 2014. At sentencing today U.S. District Judge Richard A. Jones noted that the pair attempted to distribute a large amount of drugs and that “once you put those drugs into the stream of commerce you have no idea what could happen." In announcing the seven-year sentence, Judge Jones also considered that KAINTH “absconded" in violation of the court order that required his appearance at trial.
According to testimony at trial and records filed in the case, KAINTH and Singh conspired to distribute large amounts of ecstasy. Over eight days in early May 2009, the men agreed to pay a third man to deliver large amounts of ecstasy and another drug, BZP, to co-conspirators at the Southcenter Mall in Tukwila, Washington and in San Jose, California. KAINTH and Singh did not know the man that they offered to pay to deliver the drugs was working with law enforcement. The man recorded both defendants on audio and video. In all KAINTH and Singh gave that person working with law enforcement some 285,000 pills worth more than $2.8 million. The pills were all seized by law enforcement.
The case was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Brian Werner.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
