Federal agents bust drug ring operating near Washington University campus

SEATTLE — Federal agents have busted an East African drug trafficking organization operating just steps from the University of Washington campus.

Investigators said the group was linked to violent incidents in the city and operated out of two houses in the University District, with students often going to one of those locations to buy drugs.

The dismantling of another drug trafficking organization through Seattle-Tacoma International Airport led to the discovery of an operation operating near the University of Washington campus selling drugs to students, according to federal investigators with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

“This is something that moves up and down the streets of Seattle every day because of this organization,” said HSI Special Agent in Charge Robert Hammer. Federal agents were able to trace the suspects’ emails, which led them to drug houses in the University District where the organization operated.

“This organization was complex,” said Tessa Gorman, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Washington. “They used codes, changed phones, used counter-surveillance tactics and resorted to significant violence.”

About 600 officers and 15 tactical teams from across the country were involved in a federal operation to dismantle an East African drug trafficking network on October 30. Federal agents seized 50 guns, thousands of rounds of ammunition, Glock switches and silencers, as well as fentanyl, cocaine and hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and jewelry.

Federal investigators will review the weapons seized in this operation along with other open investigations to see if the weapons were used in any other crimes.

“The leader of the organization was shot and killed outside a University District building called The House,” Gorman said. “The second location in the university district they called The Office, they sold pills there, and it was next to the university buildings and dormitories where students live and study.”

Federal investigators said the group is also linked to violence throughout the city that has been documented on social media.

“Assassinations, assassinations and shootings were commonplace within this organization and among its associates,” Hammer said. “The brazenness of this drug trafficking organization has been fully demonstrated both in the various media reports that have existed over time relating to violence in the city, and in the drug trafficking organization’s own social media accounts where they published. proud of the violence they exuded in this city, often showing off guns, Glock switches, hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash passing through counting machines, rushing up and down the streets of Seattle, all the while showing short images of inside vehicles. barreled AK-47s, pistols with Glock switches.

More than a dozen people are currently facing trafficking-related charges, including one man, Khalil Ahmed, 26, of Kent, who also faces weapons charges related to fatal hookah bar shooting in August 2023 As a result, three people were killed and six people, including Ahmed, were injured. Federal investigators said Ahmed also supplied weapons to participants in the operation.

Other individuals facing federal criminal charges related to this human trafficking operation include:

Antena Tesfaye, 39, of Edmonds
Michael Janisch, 25, of Mercer Island.
Ali Kouyate, 49, Seattle
Cooper Sherman, 27, Seattle.
Alvin Whiteside, 51, of Federal Way
Mohamed Sesay, 27, of Lynnwood.
Lamin Saho, 38, of Everett
Oche Poston, 31, of Everett
Jaquan Means, 45, Bellevue
Dominque Sanders, 34, of Everett
Patrick Smith, 27, Edmonds
Matthew Robinson, 37, of Everett
Johannes Vondimagegnehu, 35, Seattle