Date: December 13, 2022 Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov SEATTLE — A Spanaway, Washington man was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Seattle to eight years in prison for his key role in a large drug distribution ring, announced U.S. Attorney Nick Brown. Dwayne Douglas George was indicted in November 2021, along with 16 other defendants. George distributed significant amounts of methamphetamine and fentanyl in Western Washington, and acted as a courier, bringing large amounts of drugs to the northwest from California. U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour noted "the large amount of methamphetamine and fentanyl in the case. Both are extremely dangerous and caused a lot of damage in this community." "Mr. George obtained as much as seven pounds of methamphetamine at a time directly from the leader of this drug distribution ring – and fed the addiction of countless people struggling in our community," said U.S. Attorney Brown. "He also was poised to bring 80,000 fentanyl pills to our community. Both meth and fentanyl are claiming lives across western Washington." According to records filed in the case the investigation began in February 2020. Various people working with law enforcement provided information regarding the drug distribution activities. Aware of some of the group's trafficking, law enforcement seized 9 pounds of methamphetamine in a traffic stop on May 16, 2020. Another 30 pounds of meth were seized in a stop on April 2, 2021, and 57 pounds of methamphetamine and 20,000 fentanyl pills were seized in a traffic stop on September 28, 2021. Additionally, on August 17, 2021, law enforcement seized 19 pounds of methamphetamine that conspirators attempted to mail to Fiji. George helped the organization spread drugs to King, Pierce, Thurston, Lewis, Mason, and Kitsap counties. "Mr. George was a large-scale distributor of illegal narcotics which have caused countless deaths and sorrow for many families in the Pacific Northwest," said Jacob D. Galvan, Acting Special Agent in Charge, DEA Seattle Field Division. "The DEA and all of its partners will continue to investigate, arrest and hold accountable individuals like Mr. George and those organizations that seek to bring harm to our communities." In asking for an eight-year prison sentence, prosecutors wrote to the court that George "…worked alongside members of a large transnational drug organization, selling pound-quantities of methamphetamine. Moreover, he also made the decision to get involved in the distribution of fentanyl, an incredibly dangerous and oftentimes lethal drug, that he never used himself. Based on his conduct, the amounts of drugs he was distributing, and his long criminal past, including more than 30 years of drug trafficking, George is not only deserving of a significant sentence, but such a sentence is also clearly necessary to protect the public." Judge Coughenour ordered George to serve four years of supervised release following his prison term. This case is an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) investigation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level drug traffickers, money launderers, gangs, and transnational criminal organizations that threaten the United States by using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach that leverages the strengths of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies against criminal networks. The investigation was led by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Seattle Field Division (SFD) Tacoma Resident Office (TRO) and Bremerton Police Department (BPD), with assistance from Tahoma Narcotics Enforcement (TNET); the Seattle, Puyallup, Auburn, Federal Way, Kent, Bonney Lake, Tacoma, and Lakewood Police Departments; the Pierce County Sheriff's Office; Washington State Department of Corrections; Joint Narcotics Enforcement Team (JNET): Centralia and Chehalis Police Departments; Valley Narcotics Enforcement Team (VNET); and Washington State Patrol; Thurston Narcotics Team (TNT), Kitsap County Sheriff's Office, and Mason County Sheriff's Office; United States Postal Inspections Service (USPIS), Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives (ATF) with support from Northwest High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas ( HIDTA). The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys C. Andrew Colasurdo and William Dreher.
