Two Tacoma men were sentenced for leading a violent drug ring in Washington State

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An undated image included in federal court documents shows defendants’ Matthew Gudino-Pena and Hunter O’Mealy firing semi-automatic weapons they obtained while operating their illegal drug organization.

TACOMA, WA (November 3, 2022).- Two Tacoma men were sentenced on Wednesday, November 2nd, in a U.S. District Court to decades in prison for leading a violent drug ring that trafficked Fentanyl and other drugs from Mexico to Washington cities and other states across the country.

Caleb Carr, 23, and Hunter O’Mealy, 19, were sentenced in the Eastern District of Washington to 20 years in prison for conspiracy to distribute 400 grams or more of Fentanyl. Both men pleaded guilty to that charge in May.

To build and operate their drug organization, federal prosecutors said Carr and O’Mealy obtained untraceable homemade firearms known as “ghost guns,” purchased narcotics from a transnational cartel, and even illegally transported migrants across the Mexican border.

While part of the drug ring, prosecutors said Carr and O’Mealy lived lavishly, traveling to concerts, hotels, and parties with the money they were making. As business went on in 2021, members engaged in violence and intimidation. Records say the defendants were involved last year in the attempted murder of a Lakewood man in a shooting that left him paralyzed from the waist down. Prosecutors said members of the drug ring shot him because they falsely believed he was an informant.

The drugs trafficked by Carr and O’Mealy’s organization were killing people too, including a 15-year-old high school freshman in Idaho and a person in Graham. According to court records, that Idaho overdose is what first led the Drug Enforcement Administration and the United States Postal Inspection Service to begin their joint investigation into the “Fetty Bros Drug Organization.”

Another Washington man, Matthew Gudino-Pena, 21, was sentenced to 16 years, and four months on the same conspiracy to distribute charge. In a sentencing memo, prosecutors said he often acted as security for drug shipments. Once their sentences are complete, the three men will be on supervised release for 10 years.

A fourth person involved in the drug ring, Jamie Bellovich, is to be sentenced on Nov. 17. She pleaded guilty in May to conspiracy to distribute.

In drug seizures made between August and September 2021, investigators recovered about 12,851 grams of Fentanyl, 254 grams of cocaine, 592 grams of Benzodiazepine and 16.94 kilograms of marijuana, according to prosecutors’ sentencing memo.

Source: US Department of Justice

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