A 22-year-old man from Sinaloa, Mexico, was sentenced to three years in prison and three years of supervised release for operating a stash house linked to a drug trafficking organization in SeaTac, Washington. The sentence was handed down in U.S. District Court in Seattle. Acting U.S. Attorney Teal Luthy Miller announced the sentencing.
Jose Carlos Peraza Alvarez was arrested on August 2, 2024, after Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents raided his residence. During the search, agents seized significant quantities of drugs: 70 kilograms of methamphetamine, three kilograms of heroin, one kilogram of fentanyl pills, and six kilograms of fentanyl powder.
At the sentencing hearing, U.S. District Judge Kymberly K. Evanson stated: “The aggravating point is the quantity of drugs seized. This is a serious offense involving large amounts of controlled substances.”
Records from the case indicate that law enforcement began investigating Peraza Alvarez during the summer of 2024 as part of a broader effort to target drug trafficking operations in the area. By July 2024, DEA surveillance identified his address in SeaTac and later searched both his residence and that of a co-conspirator in Kent, Washington.
The co-conspirator, Martin Alonzo Peinado Torres, acted as a runner for the organization and had more than $12,000 in cash at his home but only small amounts of drugs when authorities searched it. He received a sentence of 22 months in prison in June 2025.
Peraza Alvarez pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute controlled substances in May 2025.
Prosecutors argued for a six-year sentence due to the dangers posed by both fentanyl and methamphetamine: “While Mr. Peraza Alvarez certainly possessed copious amount of deadly fentanyl, he also had a sizable cache of methamphetamine. Fentanyl is obviously known for its deadly properties, the government also notes that methamphetamine was the second most common drug involved in King County overdose deaths in 2024. In 2024, there were 581 overdose deaths that involved methamphetamine, which represented 56% of all overdose deaths in King County,” prosecutors wrote.
Authorities stated that Peraza Alvarez was unlawfully present in the United States and is likely to be deported following completion of his prison term.
The DEA investigated this case with prosecution led by Assistant United States Attorney Casey Conzatti.
