Ramon Duarte Garcia, Drug Trafficking, Washington 2024

A repeat drug trafficker, who continued to bring large loads of narcotics to the community despite being stopped by law enforcement multiple times, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Ramon Duarte Garcia, 38, a Mexican citizen who previously resided in Kent, Washington, was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Seattle to 10 years in prison for drug trafficking, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Teal Luthy Miller.

Between 2020 and June 2024 investigators seized more than 32 kilograms of cocaine, 14 kilograms of methamphetamine, 83,000 fentanyl-laced pills, 3 kilograms of heroin, and 1 kilogram of fentanyl powder.

Garcia was arrested in June 2024, following a drug investigation lasting nearly four years. He had been stopped by law enforcement previously, including in July 2023 and December 2023, during which methamphetamine, cocaine, and two firearms were seized from his vehicle.

When Garcia’s car was searched on December 4, 2023, law enforcement seized 13 kilograms of cocaine, a loaded Sig Sauer 9mm semiautomatic pistol, pistol magazines and ammunition, a shell casing, $1,716 in cash drug proceeds, a knife, and a drug ledger. Investigators also recovered suspected bullet fragments from the vehicle’s side paneling.

Garcia was trafficking large amounts of drugs even though he had been stopped on July 14, 2023, and charged in California with drug trafficking for the 12 pounds of meth, the Glock handgun and the $10,000 seized from his car.

In asking for a 12-year prison sentence, prosecutors wrote to the court, ‘Duarte Garcia made a conscious and repeated choice to put his needs above those of the community. Indeed, every time that he decided to distribute fentanyl, methamphetamine, cocaine, or heroin, he put lives in danger.’

Duarte Garcia had overstayed his visa to be in the U.S. and will likely be deported following his prison term. Should he remain in the U.S. he will be on three years of supervised release following prison.

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