Drug deal at Tacoma mall helped convict man linked to Mexican cartel

Tacoma Mall was the site of at least one drug bust that led to a 2022 federal indictment on smuggling, human trafficking and money laundering charges against a 28-year-old California man. He was sentenced Thursday in U.S. District Court in Tacoma to more than five years in prison.

The sentence also includes four years of supervised release, the Justice Department said in a press release.

Department of Homeland Security investigators determined that Andre Jackson had direct contact with a Mexican drug supplier known as “Pacheco,” managing the delivery of drugs from California to Washington state – in especially to distributors in Kitsap and Pierce counties. He also used social media to recruit drivers to smuggle noncitizens across the border, authorities found during the drug investigation.

In August 2021, court documents revealed that Jackson went to the Tacoma Mall to hand-deliver 3,500 fentanyl pills to an undercover law enforcement officer. He then drove 30 miles north to a Bremerton grocery store to drop off a smaller stash of pills to a co-defendant in the case.

Jackson also used several locations in Bremerton and Silverdale to transfer proceeds from these drug sales to his contacts in Mexico, investigators found. From August to October 2021, money moved through Money Gram, CashApp and Western Union outposts in Kitsap and Pierce counties to the accounts of people living in Mexico.

In addition to drug trafficking and illegal wire transfers, Jackson has also been accused of facilitating illegal border crossings. Its recruits would pick up immigrants in Mexico or near the border and transport them north, investigators determined after “a number” of cars were stopped and their drivers apprehended by law enforcement.

Jackson was indicted and arrested in November 2022. He pleaded guilty in February to conspiracy to distribute controlled substances and money laundering, as well as conspiracy to transport “certain noncitizens for financial gain.” , indicates the press release.

The investigation also led to federal charges against three other people: Jason Baker was sentenced to five years and one month in prison and Ashley Chico and John Irias-Mejia to 18 months.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Hobbs, who prosecuted the case on behalf of the Justice Department, told the court that Jackson helped distribute “significant quantities of fentanyl pills and likely other drugs “. Above all, he added, “Jackson was not just a street dealer or a simple courier. He was in direct contact with the DTO [drug-trafficking organization] leader in Mexico and played a significant and conscious role in transporting the drugs from California to Washington, distributing the drugs in that state, and returning the profits to Mexico.

The Tacoma judge, Chief U.S. District Judge David G. Estudillo, noted that “drug trafficking is of course dangerous” and that human trafficking meant Jackson “made money from people vulnerable”.