SEATTLE — A 46-year-old Seattle man was sentenced Wednesday to two years in federal prison for distributing cocaine and fentanyl as part of a trafficking ring that operated in homeless encampments and the city’s Chinatown-International District.
U.S. District Judge Tana Lin imposed the term in Seattle and ordered three years of supervised release after Sang Su completes his prison sentence. Su pleaded guilty on July 2 to conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance and has been in federal custody since his arrest on Aug. 18, 2025.
The case grew out of a joint investigation that began in 2023 after drug-related violence in encampments and the greenbelt along Interstate 5 known as “The Jungle.” The FBI, Seattle Police Department and Drug Enforcement Administration worked the probe as part of the Homeland Security Task Force, an initiative established by executive order to target transnational criminal organizations and related drug trafficking.
Investigators first encountered Su in October 2024 after he bought drugs from the group’s leader at a market on Beacon Hill. Officers stopped his vehicle and seized narcotics along with a firearm. A later wiretap captured Su discussing cocaine sales and arranging to obtain samples of fentanyl powder.
On May 29, 2025, agents executed 16 search warrants across locations in Federal Way, Vancouver, Everett, Pacific, Tukwila, Kent, Issaquah and Seattle, as well as sites in Woodlake, California, and Beaverton, Oregon. The searches turned up more than 7 kilograms of cocaine, 18 kilograms of methamphetamine, more than 57,000 fentanyl pills, 17 firearms and more than $353,000 in cash. Su was not located during the May operation and remained at large until his August arrest.
At Wednesday’s hearing, Lin told Su it was “aggravating that you were selling significant amounts of cocaine and fentanyl to some of the most marginalized members of our community.”
Prosecutors had recommended 30 months in prison. In their sentencing memorandum they noted Su’s repeated contacts with law enforcement between 2002 and 2025, including arrests involving assault, drug violations and carrying loaded firearms. Most of those cases were dismissed or never charged, and the government wrote that earlier interventions “failed to curtail Su’s criminal acts.”
Acting U.S. Attorney Charles Neil Floyd said the sentence reflected a consistent approach to the case. “Whether you are a low-level distributor or a high-volume dealer, we will prosecute you,” Floyd said. “He has earned his time in prison, which will hopefully break his cycle of crime.”
W. Mike Herrington, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Seattle field office, said Su “directly interacted with the group leader and further endangered the public by possessing a loaded firearm to protect the proceeds of the trafficking.”
Su is among several defendants already sentenced in the broader conspiracy. The group’s leader, Daniel Ibarra Loera, 32, of Kent, received eight years in prison in September. Leonardo Rojas Cruz, 54, of Federal Way, was sentenced to three years later the same month. Four other co-defendants received terms ranging from one year to six years.
The investigation focused on street-level distribution that fed into larger quantities of methamphetamine, cocaine and fentanyl moving through the region. Officials have said the ring’s activity contributed to both the supply of drugs in vulnerable areas and associated violence in and around the encampments.
Su’s two-year term is shorter than the sentences given to higher-level participants, consistent with his role as a distributor rather than a primary source of supply. He remains eligible for credit for time already served since his August 2025 arrest.
Author: Lynnwood Times Staff
