WHATCOM COUNTY, WA (MyBellinghamNow.com) – Over a dozen people were arrested this week in connection to a drug trafficking operation that spanned from the American South to the Lummi Nation.
The U.S. Dept of Justice (DOJ) says 14 people were indicted, with a total of 21 people either arrested or wanted for arrest on Oct. 3. The operation was linked to one of the four consecutive overdose deaths that rocked the Lummi Nation earlier this year.
The DOJ says Marquis Jackson from Renton, WA and Atlanta, GA was the drug ringleader. Four members of his family were involved in the operation. They were all charged with multiple offenses, including drug distribution and money laundering.
Robert Bellair of Ferndale and Thomas Morris, Patrick James and Ronald Finkbonner from Bellingham were arrested for intent to distribute fentanyl earlier this week. A Whatcom County investigation linked the four men to the Jackson family via phone communications. Others arrested hail from Seattle as well as Arizona, Kansas and Georgia.
U.S. DOJ Attorney Tessa Gorman says the operation distributed more than 800,000 fentanyl pills throughout the U.S., reaching from Georgia and Texas to Arizona, Missouri and Montana.
Four of those wanted for arrest—Markell Jackson, Tyrell Lewis, Diyana Abraha and Tianna Karastan—are still at-large.
