Head of Eastern Washington drug-trafficking operation sentenced to 19 years in federal prison

A federal judge sentenced a 45-year-old Mexican native to 19 years in prison Friday after a jury found him guilty of multiple drug-trafficking and firearm charges.

U.S. District Judge Thomas Rice sentenced Luis Esquivel-Bolanos, who was convicted on charges that he’d run a drug-trafficking operation in Oroville, Washington, and on land owned by the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, according to a news release from the U.S. attorney’s office. The drugs were sourced from a cartel in Mexico, prosecutors said. The sentence also includes five years of supervised release.

Bolanos was a high-ranking member of a trafficking group that had infiltrated parts of Washington, Montana and nearby tribal reservations, the statement said. Fentanyl, heroin, methamphetamine and cocaine were the products in the operation.

Acting U.S. Attorney Stephanie Van Marter said in the release the “drug network was dismantled.”

“This case involved one of the largest drug seizures ever in rural Washington,” Van Marter said. “Esquivel-Bolanos’s organization was major source of illegal narcotics across Washington and Montana. These drugs caused serious harm across our region and especially in our tribal communities.”