He bragged of selling 15,000 fentanyl pills a week. Now Tri-Cities man headed to prison

A man who bragged about being among the first in the Tri-Cities to sell large quantities of fentanyl pills was sentenced Monday to seven years and three months in federal prison.

Arturo Tejeda-Gomez, 47, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute 400 grams or more of fentanyl, despite working long hours at a job as a union insulator.

This will be his second federal prison term, after a drug-related conviction in 2000, said U.S. Judge Mary Dimke. She also sentenced him at a hearing in the federal courthouse in Richland to five years probation.

She called his offense “incredibly serious.”

She pointed out he told a confidential source for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration that he knew people were overdosing and dying from fentanyl.

When Tejeda-Gomez met with the confidential source, he was recorded saying “I was, if not the first, one of the first persons to start bringing them here by the thousands,” according to a court document.

He also said he was selling 10,000 to 15,000 pills a week.

He had recently “lost a runner” due to a law enforcement take down, he told the confidential source.

In November 2020 Tejeda-Gomez sold the confidential source 400 fentanyl pills and later that month sent Andres Gutierrez, a co-defendant in the case, to deliver 1,032 fentanyl laced pills weighing 100 grams and 0.6 gram of heroin, according to court documents.

Evidence was collected to show that Tejeda and others in the drug trafficking organization under investigation received regular shipments of methamphetamine, cocaine and fentanyl laced pills, according to a court document.

While the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Washington asked the judge for a sentence of seven years and three months, which was at the top end of federal sentencing guidance, the attorney for Tejeda-Gomez asked for a sentence a year shorter than that.

Tejeda-Gomez was just “puffing” to sell drugs when he talked to the confidential source about his long history and high volume of fentanyl sales, said his attorney, Ken Therrien of Yakima in a court document.

“Mr. Tejeda does not take any pride or satisfaction in those comments,” Therrien said in the document.

Family, friends and co-workers submitted letters to the court stressing how hard he worked at legitimate jobs to support his family and that he was a good parent and co-worker.

His wife and brother-in-law testified to his good character in court Monday before he was sentenced.

The judge said Tejeda-Gomez’s family was well known in court.

His father was in prison in Mexico for kidnapping and his sister has convictions, she said.

Uncles, cousins and other family members previously were involved in transporting drugs across the U.S. and Mexico border before they were sent to prison, according to a court document.

“We was raised in a family where drug trafficking was a way of life,” said Laurel Holland, an assistant U.S. attorney.

She called for a long sentence, saying that fentanyl use in the Tri-Cities had caused overdoses and deaths and had impacted families.

Tejeda-Gomez apologized to the judge. He said he made bad choices but wanted to be a good example for the community after he is released from prison.

When Tejeda-Gomez was arrested in early 2021 he had worked for the same company since 2009, including in Moses Lake and Wallula. He most recently was a union insulator and had served as a foreman.

But for whatever reason Tejeda-Gomez had returned to drug trafficking despite his time in prison, the judge said.

She said she hoped that his new prison term would serve as a deterrent.