(The Center Square) – A Wenatchee man has been sentenced to 25 years in federal prison for leading a drug trafficking organization operating in central Washington state.
The defendant, 41-year-old Edward James Salvador, is a Sureno gang member who moved to this area after being released from California’s Department of Corrections for prior criminal offenses, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Washington.
Authorities alleged that Salvador’s operation distributed a very large amount of fentanyl-laced pills from Bakersfield, California, into the Chelan and Douglas county areas with the help of multiple other individuals, most of whom were fellow gang members.
Salvador, known by the street name of “Droopy,” would obtain thousands of fentanyl pills and 15 to 20 pounds of methamphetamine from his California supplier several times a month, the U.S. Attorney’s office said in a press release Tuesday.
Additionally, in March 2022, investigators learned that Salvador was working with other high-level drug traffickers to establish a location in Moses Lake to “cook” methamphetamine.
“The group discussed losing money because they were not moving enough drugs. The source of supply, who lived in California, committed to increasing the amount of methamphetamine being produced,” according to the statement.
Investigators said they learned the next day that Salvador had acquired 15 pounds of ephedrine, which is used in meth production, along with other needed chemicals. The unnamed drug trafficker who owned the Moses Lake compound was supposed to keep half of the drugs which got produced in exchange for the use of his property and providing other materials.
Salvador was later arrested through the efforts of the federal Homeland Security Investigations and Columbia River Task Force which includes the Chelan and Douglas county sheriff’s offices and Wenatchee and East Wenatchee police departments. Assisting were the Moses Lake Police Department, Grant County Interagency Narcotics Enforcement Team, and U.S Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.
They used controlled drug buys, interviews with other cooperating defendants, and tracking warrants to develop the case and establish Salvador’s ringleader involvement, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
After pleading guilty to charges of conspiracy to distribute 500 grams or more of methamphetamine and 400 grams or more of fentanyl, Salvador was sentenced Tuesday to 300 months in prison by U.S. District Court Judge Mary K. Dimke. He was also ordered to complete five years of supervision upon release.
During the hearing, Dimke said Salvador had experience a troubled childhood, but experienced a “period of sobriety” before returning to criminal behavior “in epic fashion” with control “over an entire area” due in part to violence that “scares an entire community.”
U.S. Attorney Vanessa R. Waldref said Salvador “spread a staggering amount of illegal narcotics into our communities, including by distributing as much as 20,000 fentanyl pills to his network of drug traffickers every couple weeks. Mr. Salvador also attempted to set up an operation to manufacture large quantities of methamphetamine in the Moses Lake area.”
The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Caitlin Baunsgard.
