MARYSVILLE RESIDENT SENTENCED TO 15 YEARS IN PRISON FOR METHAMPHETAMINE DISTRIBUTION
Mexican National Led Police on High-Speed Chase before Arrest in January 2008
JOSE LUCAS ZAMORA, 39, of Marysville, Washington, was sentenced today to 15 years in prison and five years of supervised release for Conspiracy to Distribute Methamphetamine, Distribution of Methamphetamine and Possession with Intent to Distribute Methamphetamine. ZAMORA was convicted by a federal court jury on October 2, 2008, following a three day trial. At sentencing Chief U.S. District Judge Robert S. Lasnik said ZAMORA would doubtless be deported and unable to return to this country following his prison term.
ZAMORA was arrested January 26, 2008, after delivering more than a pound of methamphetamine to an undercover police officer in exchange for $17,000. ZAMORA sped away after the deal and tried to elude police, racing through a residential area in Lynnwood, Washington and driving very close to some children playing in a cul-de-sac. ZAMORA crashed his car into a tree and was arrested by police. The drug ring was under investigation by the South Snohomish County Narcotics Task Force (SSCNTF) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) for about a year, with ZAMORA and his associates making drug sales to undercover officers. ZAMORA’s brother Efrain Zamora has been indicted in the case and remains a fugitive. Co-defendant Jose Christopher Crist was sentenced November 14, 2008, to five years in prison.
In asking the court for a lengthy sentence Assistant United States Attorney Patricia Lally noted that ZAMORA endangered the public by his efforts to elude police at the time of his arrest and by his drug dealing. “The dangers of methamphetamine are not limited to just the user. Rather, everyone suffers -- property owners, the neighbors whose homes and streets are less safe, the victims of meth-related crimes (identity theft, bank fraud, mail fraud, etc.) as meth addicts look for quick and easy money to support their habits, the children of meth-addicted parents whose lives are forever altered. Protecting the public means keeping Zamora away from society. It is imperative and the only way to deter Zamora from returning to criminal conduct,” Ms. Lally wrote in her sentencing memo.
The case was investigated by the South Snohomish County Narcotics Task Force (SSCNTF) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Patricia Lally and Roger Rogoff.
For additional information please contact Emily Langlie, Public Affairs Officer for the United States Attorney’s Office, at (206) 553-4110 or Emily.Langlie@USDOJ.Gov.
