A former Cascadia Community College student who was found with more than 57 pounds of heroin and cocaine at his Kirkland home at the time of his arrest was last week sentenced to more than 13 years in prison.
Javier Sanchez-Vasquez, 28, who was also known as “Cookie,” was sentenced last Friday in U.S. District Court in Seattle to 160 months in prison (13 years, 4 months) and five years of supervised release for conspiracy to distribute cocaine and heroin. A Mexican citizen, Sanchez-Vasquez will likely be deported following his prison term.
As part of the plea agreement from January 2008, Sanchez-Vasquez forfeited to the government more than $1.2 million in cash stashed in various homes and cars. At sentencing U.S. District Judge Ricardo Martinez commented that “the quantity of drugs and cash is substantial … it is one of the highest we’ve seen in federal court,” according to a news release.
According to records filed in the case, Sanchez-Vasquez ran a drug trafficking organization out of his Kirkland home while he was enrolled in classes at Cascadia Community College in Bothell. He was arrested in April 2007 following a nine month investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Snohomish Regional Drug Task Force (SRDTF). As part of the probe, investigators used a confidential informant and court authorized wire taps of Sanchez-Vasquez’s telephone. The organization was found to be bringing heroin and cocaine up from Mexico and distributing it in King and Snohomish counties.
On April 9, 2007, investigators served search warrants at Sanchez-Vasquez’s Kirkland home and at a stash house he rented in north Seattle. At the two locations they found more than 16 kilograms of cocaine and more than 10 kilograms of heroin.