YAKIMA, Wash - Drugs, guns and roosters believed to be used for cockfighting were all seized in what the U.S. Attorney's Office calls a criminal conspiracy investigation.
The feds announced six separate indictments Thursday against 34 people, 28 of whom are in custody.
According to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Eastern Washington, this is part of a long-term investigation into a La Nuestra Familia, who the feds describe as "a violent prison gang responsible for trafficking dangerous drugs into our community for the enrichment of their members."
Some of the accused are leaders in the organization and serving life sentences at a federal prison in Colorado.
The investigation, which started in 2018, involved multiple agencies in Yakima County, the Yakama Reservation, Spokane County and Walla Walla County. The U.S. Attorney's Office says the investigation also extended into Louisiana, Colorado and Arkansas.
According to investigators, four of the men acted as leaders and supervised others into a criminal enterprise that included "possession and distribution of illegal drugs, cockfighting, possession of illegal firearms, illegal use of the U.S. Mail, and attempts to kill those who assisted law enforcement in this investigation."
U.S. Attorney Vanessa Waldref of the Eastern District of Washington said, “I am grateful for the coordinated efforts of so many law enforcement agencies, who simultaneously executed more than twenty search warrants in the Yakima area and across the United States earlier today. More than 350 federal, state, local, and Tribal law enforcement came together to coordinate the takedown of this alleged drug trafficking operation.”
U.S. Attorney Waldref continued, “It is an honor to lead important prosecutions, such as this one, which has removed illegal drugs and firearms from our community and illegal narcotics from the Bureau of Prisons. Our community and our nation are safer and stronger as a result of the incredible work of our law enforcement and prosecution teams.”
Agents seized 37 firearms, thousands of rounds of ammunition, pounds of cocaine and meth and more than 8,000 fentanyl-laced pills.
They also seized hundreds of roosters from locations in Zillah and Outlook, Washington believed to have been used in cockfights.
Many of those roosters are now in the care of an animal rescue.
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