PORTLAND, Oregon — The US Department of Justice stated on Friday that members of an Aryan prison gang from Washington and Arizona had been punished for drug and weapons crimes.
Ronaldo McComb, 59, of Ridgefield, Washington, was sentenced to thirteen years in jail. Isaac Cervantes, 32, of Phoenix was sentenced to nine years in jail.
At Cervantes’ sentence hearing, Chief U.S. District Judge David G. Estudillo stated, “We are talking about massive quantities of controlled substances.” This is not your typical street dealer. The amount of societal harm caused by these narcotics is practically unfathomable.”
When asked about the guns used in the cases, Judge Estudillo stated, “These are not small-time firearms, and obviously they’re there to protect the drug trade, and people suffer from the violence involved in this.”
In June 2024, McComb pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute controlled narcotics and felon in possession of firearms. McComb admitted to making many taped phone calls in which he discussed his drug trafficking activities, which included delivering several pounds of methamphetamine and tens of thousands of fentanyl pills, as well as establishing a fentanyl pill distribution network that extended up into Alaska.
He also admitted to having huge quantity of heroin and a 9mm pistol, which police recovered from the trunk of his car during a February 2022 traffic check.
On March 22, 2023, law enforcement apprehended him, and they discovered meth, heroin, three firearms, and enormous quantities of cash and gold bars at McComb’s Kalama residence.
As part of the plea deal, McComb agreed to hand up the cash and gold from his drug trafficking. McComb was prohibited from carrying firearms due to felony convictions for assault and robbery in Clark County and another assault conviction in Cowlitz County.
Cervantes was caught in Phoenix at the time of the drug raid. Cervantes assisted narcotics traffickers by transporting fentanyl, methamphetamine, and other drugs to Washington from Arizona. He also worked at the stash house, where the crew crushed powdered fentanyl into pills, according to a USDOJ statement.
Cervantes was stopped in Oregon on July 1, 2021, with 50,000 counterfeit M30 Oxycodone tablets in a car owned by one of the narcotics operation’s executives.
Cervantes was linked to a “stash house” in Shelton, Washington, where law officials seized 64 kilos (about 640,000 pills) of fentanyl.
Law officers also discovered over 15 kilograms of methamphetamine and one kilogram of fentanyl powder in the stash home.
In addition to the drugs, police officials recovered two pill presses, 23 firearms, a silencer, and more than $81,000 cash.
Cervantes pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute dangerous narcotics in February of 2024.
Prosecutors warned that counterfeit oxycodone pills laced with fentanyl can be devastating for first-time users, who may be unaware of the harmful chemical. The United States is experiencing an unprecedented epidemic of overdose deaths, with an unrelenting increase in Washington state. The National Center for Health Statistics, Centers for Disease Control, estimates that, despite a small decrease in overdose deaths nationwide, Washington had an increase of over 27% in the year ending December 2023.
The drug trafficking ring’s investigation resulted in the recovery of 245 pounds of methamphetamine, more than 830,000 fentanyl pills, an additional 26 pounds of fentanyl tablets and powder, more than six pounds of heroin, 225 weapons, and more than $668,000 cash.