Bonney Lake PD Assist in Federal Heroin Trafficking Bust

A Spanaway man at the center of a local drug trafficking ring was sentenced to 10 years in prison for conspiracy to distribute heroin, the U.S. Attorney's Office reported Monday. The investigation, called Project Deliverance, was led by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and received help from several local police agencies, including Bonney Lake.

Jose Manuel Campos Pineda, 34, was found to be the leader of a heroin trafficking ring that delivered large amounts of heroin and methamphetamine from the Mexican cartels to street level customers in the Tacoma area. He arranged for the drugs to be transported to the Pacific Northwest, U.S. District Court Judge Marsha Pechman said.

The organized crime was happening within a six-square mile area of South Tacoma. Drug customers from Pierce, Kitsap, Thurston, Lewis and Grays Harbor counties would call and order drugs, then a dispatcher coordinated the movement. The drug runner’s car would drive slowly pass the customer car signaling it to follow. The cars would proceed into a residential neighborhood, alert to any surveillance, and make the drug transaction. Hundreds of thousands of dollars were shipped to Mexico in hidden compartments built into vehicles. 

Through the course of the investigation, authorities seized more than 80 pounds of heroin, $400,000 in cash, four firearms and more than four pounds of methamphetamine.

As members of a multi-department task force, Bonney Lake detectives lent a hand in the investigation that began 13 months ago. Pineda and the other defendants were arrested more than a year ago, records say.

Pineda is one of 26 people to be sentenced in the wire-tap investigation. He is a Mexican national who will be deported once his prison term is up.

In asking for the lengthy prison term, prosecutors noted that Pineda trafficked black tar heroin – one of the drugs that has fueled cartel violence. According to the U.S. State Department, there have been 22,700 narcotics-related murders in Mexico since 2006, as cartels battle to decide who will control the supply of drugs into the United States.