Seattle Feds Dismantle Fentanyl Rings: 18 Arrested, Millions of Pills Seized

In a pair of coordinated strikes on November 20, 2025, DEA agents and Seattle Police arrested 18 members of two fentanyl distribution rings operating across King County, seizing 3.4 million fentanyl pills, heroin, cocaine, loaded firearms and cash. The first operation, after a 10-month probe launched by a December 2024 traffic stop of leader Carlos Gutama Escandon, 30, of Renton, by Tulalip Tribal Police in Marysville, netted 1.6 kilos of fentanyl from suspect Sandoval Zuniga's vehicle and drugs plus a .45 caliber pistol at his Sammamish home. 'Our teams seized enough poison to kill every person alive in King County,' said DEA Seattle Special Agent in Charge David F. Reames, noting the Gutama Escandon family's Ecuadorian origins and their practice of involving young children in dealings.

A separate multi-state conspiracy, indicted in 2024 and yielding 17 arrests including 13 in Washington, centered on the Jackson family of Renton: leader Marquis Jackson, 31, his parents Mandel Jackson, 50, and Matelita 'Marty' Jackson, 49, plus siblings Markell Jackson, 21, and Miracle Patu-Jackson, 22. Marty Jackson, executive director of the SE Network SafetyNet violence prevention initiative funded by King County with nearly $193,000 for Rainier Beach programs, was charged alongside family tied to a Seattle street gang for fentanyl trafficking linked to a fatal overdose on the Lummi Nation reservation in Whatcom County. Over two years, agents seized 846,000 fentanyl pills, seven kilograms each of fentanyl powder and cocaine, 29 firearms and $116,000 cash across Washington, Georgia, Missouri, Texas and Arizona. Ten Washington defendants remain detained at SeaTac Federal Detention Center.

These busts build on prior efforts, including a yearlong wiretap investigation from Kent to Everett that nabbed Lamin Saho, 40, of Everett—sentenced January 26, 2026, to six years for distributing up to 10,000 pills at a time even after a 5,000-pill seizure. That ring, frequenting Seattle's University District, yielded 200,000 pills, four kilos of cocaine, 60 guns and $250,000 cash, with sentences up to 10 years. 'The City of Seattle and region are safer,' said Seattle Police Assistant Chief Nicole Powell of the Gutama takedown. Operations spanned Lewis to Snohomish counties under initiatives like Operation Take Back America.