Lacey, Washington Repeat Offender Sentenced to Six Years in Prison for Oxycodone Trafficking

            A Lacey, Washington man with prior felony drug convictions, was sentenced October 1, 2013 to six years in prison and five years of supervised release for possession of oxycodone with intent to distribute and structuring financial transactions, announced U.S. Attorney Jenny A. Durkan.  G.B. BROWN, 54, was arrested on June 9, 2011, following a South Sound Gang Task Force investigation.  He was convicted following a jury trial on May 14, 2013.  U.S. District Judge Benjamin H. Settle imposed the sentence.

            According to records filed in the case, BROWN came to the attention of law enforcement as part of an investigation into oxycodone trafficking from California to the south Puget Sound region.  Law enforcement was aware of multiple packages of oxycodone pills that were shipped to BROWN’s Lacey address.  Prior to his arrest BROWN sought to purchase a large quantity of oxycodone pills from a person working with law enforcement.  He made multiple withdrawals of large amounts of cash from his bank accounts on consecutive days in amounts just under the $10,000 reporting requirement, which he consolidated and used to pay for the $45,000 worth of oxycodone pills in his possession at the time of his arrest.  Those withdrawals were the basis for the structuring count of conviction, as well as the court-ordered forfeiture of the remaining $49,300 in one of those bank accounts.

In asking for a lengthy prison term, prosecutors wrote to the court about the impact of oxycodone abuse on the community.  “…The dependency created by the drug, and supported by Brown and drug dealers like him, often haunts users for the rest of their lives.  Moreover, illicit drug users, themselves victims of their dealer’s greed, often end up then victimizing other people -- usually either by robbing or stealing, or by selling drugs themselves -- in order to fund their expensive but all-important drug habits.  Not only is the health of the individual drug users harmed, but the health and public safety of the entire community is put at risk in many ways.  Increased crime, some of it violent, either to support drug habits or simply committed by those high on drugs.  Persons high on drugs getting into vehicular accidents or causing injuries or damage to property and lives in other ways,” prosecutors wrote in their sentencing memo.

The case was investigated by the South Sound Gang Task Force and was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Gregory A. Gruber.