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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

5 WA men indicted in drug-trafficking ring in Seattle

By Catalina Gaitán Seattle Times

SEATTLE – Five King County men face federal charges of running a violent drug-trafficking ring targeting homeless encampments in Seattle’s Chinatown International District, including near 12th Avenue South and South Jackson Street and at The Jungle under Interstate 5.

The group, called “The Jungle Shrike,” is accused of selling methamphetamines, fentanyl, cocaine and heroin to people experiencing homelessness and behavioral health issues in the CID at inflated prices and using threats of “extreme violence” to control the area’s drug trade since at least November 2023, officials said at a news conference Wednesday in Seattle’s Hing Hay Park in the neighborhood.

The men are also suspects in several shootings, robberies and arson incidents, said W. Mike Herrington, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Seattle field office.

Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell said the men’s indictments marked a victory in the city’s efforts to curb violence in the CID, where converging crises of homelessness, fentanyl and crime have set residents and business owners on edge. Recent violence in the area, one of Seattle’s historic and ethnically diverse neighborhoods, includes a man accused of stabbing as many as nine people over two days near 12th and Jackson in November.

The group – which investigators named after a hunting bird known for impaling its prey – allegedly focused its drug-trafficking efforts in The Jungle, a sprawling homeless encampment under Interstate 5 where two people were killed in a January 2016 shooting.

The group’s territory also stretched through South Seattle, where communities were “under siege,” U.S. Attorney Tessa M. Gorman said.

“The impact on this community has been staggering,” Gorman said.

Investigators from the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Seattle Police Department identified the five men after launching an investigation into drug trafficking in the area in November 2023, when “the same five names came up over and over,” Herrington said.

Four of the five men – Tommy Pham, 37, of Newcastle; Donfeuy Saephan, 54, of Seattle; Sang Tran, 54, of Kent; and Theodore Nation, 35, of Seattle – were arrested last week and pleaded not guilty to all charges Monday.

The fifth man, Khampheth Keodara, is in custody at the South Correctional Entity in Des Moines on unrelated charges, according to jail records. Keodara, 42, of Seattle, has also been indicted on the federal charges, court documents show.

Officers seized 23 kilos of suspected fentanyl powder and 17 firearms, including AR-style rifles and semiautomatic pistols, during last week’s arrests, officials said.