Forty-two year old Humberto Garcia was convicted by the U.S. District Court in Seattle of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances after being arrested in 2020 for having ties to a drag trafficking ring. 

The drug trafficking ring was suspected of distributing heroin, methamphetamine, and fentanyl in the Puget Sound region, and seven other defendants were also arrested alongside Garcia. 

Court records show that Garcia’s car was searched on October 3, 2020, on suspicion of hiding an illegal firearm. The firearm was not found, but there were drugs hidden in a container inside the car. 

Shortly afterwards, ring leader Jose Luis Ibarra-Valle was stopped in his car, and approximately 10,000 pills containing fentanyl, over eight kilograms of methamphetamine, and over a kilogram of heroin were found in his car. These amounts were a factor in Garcia’s conviction due to his ties to Ibarra-Valle. 

“They were setting up a working relationship,” Assistant United States Attorney Michael Harder said, about Garcia and Ibarra-Valle’s relationship. Garcia wanted to be “his right-hand man.”

Ibarra-Valle and the other individuals who were arrested had pled guilty and have all been sentenced. Ibarra-Valle was sentenced to nine years in prison. Garcia was the only defendant to go to trial.