Thurston County man sentenced to 78 months in prison for possessing distribution amounts of fentanyl while armed with a stolen handgun

Tacoma – A 37-year-old Thurston County man was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Tacoma to 78 months in prison for drug and gun crimes, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Tessa M. Gorman. Samuel Wesley Mulkey was arrested in Longview, Washington, on January 21, 2022, while driving back from California with a load of powdered fentanyl and two handguns – one of them reported stolen. At today’s sentencing hearing, Chief U.S. District Judge David G. Estudillo told Mulkey, “It’s clear that fentanyl is something that is wreaking havoc on our community. The amounts you were bringing in from California says something about you – you are not a common street dealer. These are serious amounts...When you couple that with a firearm, that is a bad mixture, and someone is going to get hurt. Sometimes innocent people.”

According to records filed in the case, Mulkey came to the attention of law enforcement in Thurston County as a known drug supplier. Homeland Security Investigations were monitoring Mulkey’s travel, aware that he was driving to California to pick up additional fentanyl.

Following Mulkey’s arrest in Longview, he was booked into the Cowlitz County Jail. That same day another inmate nearly died of a fentanyl overdose. Security video linked the overdose to fentanyl Mulkey had smuggled into the jail and provided to the inmate.

While on bond pending trial, Mulkey used opioids on multiple occasions and was remanded to custody in August for violating conditions of his release.

In asking the court for an eight-year prison sentence, Assistant United States Attorney Hillary Stuart wrote to the court, “The Defendant personally knows the addictive and harmful nature of fentanyl, but chose to supply it to his community. He chose to drive to California and import it to Washington. He chose to supply it in prison, where it caused an inmate to stop breathing and nearly die. Even after

his arrest, the Defendant chose to continue to use fentanyl and associate with people who used fentanyl.”

Mulkey pleaded guilty in May 2023.

Carrying a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime adds a five-year mandatory minimum sentence to run consecutive to the underlying sentence for the drug conviction. The total sentence in this case is six and a half years in prison and five years of supervised release.

The case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations with assistance from the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Hillary Stuart.