SEATTLE — A woman identified by authorities as the co-leader of a nationwide drug trafficking ring that distributed methamphetamine, heroin, and fentanyl appeared in a Seattle courtroom last week, where she was sentenced to 15 years in prison for her role in the operation.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington said Iris Adrianna Amador-Garcia, who was living illegally in Bellflower, California, also laundered drug money and had firearms tied to the operation as far away as New York, the Southeast, and Fiji.
Officials said the drugs came from Amador-Garcia’s family in Mexico.
One shipment was seized during a traffic stop. The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Amador-Garcia later planned to find and kill the Centralia, Washington, police officer who made the stop.
Law enforcement seized 9 pounds of methamphetamine during a 2020 stop. Another traffic stop netted 30 pounds of meth in April 2021. In August 2021, authorities seized 19 pounds of methamphetamine that was being mailed to Fiji. In September 2021, another traffic stop resulted in the seizure of 57 pounds of methamphetamine and 20,000 fentanyl pills.
Investigators identified the leaders of the drug trafficking ring in 2020, and indictments were returned in 2021.
Authorities said Amador-Garcia’s partner in the operation was Jose Alfredo Maldonado-Ramirez and that the two distributed drugs in Massachusetts, New York, Illinois, Ohio, Florida, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Virginia.
Agents seized a kilogram of fentanyl, 80,000 fentanyl pills, and two guns during a search of the home where Amador-Garcia was living with her brother and two co-conspirators. Additional searches in Washington and California turned up eight more guns.
“This criminal organization was well-organized, well-sourced, and well-connected. This defendant was prepared to take drastic measures to protect what she had built. She and her criminal associates were intercepted openly discussing killing an officer after a large shipment of drugs was seized,” First Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles Neil Floyd said in a news release. “I am grateful for the diligent work of law enforcement to keep that officer safe, and to take these dangerous traffickers off the street and shut down their pipeline of devastating narcotics.”
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