Auburn man arrested, charged for possessing 135 pounds of MDMA among other drugs, weapons
Jun 5, 2024, 1:02 PM | Updated: 1:08 pm
The recovered drugs, weapons and other items from Andy Vongdala's home. (Photo courtesy of Renton Police)
(Photo courtesy of Renton Police)
An Auburn man was arrested Tuesday night on a federal criminal complaint relating to possessing multiple firearms and vast quantities of drugs for distribution.
Andy Peter Vongdala, 33, was initially a suspect in a series of burglaries throughout Renton. The Renton Police Department (RPD), with assistance from King County prosecutors, obtained a search warrant for Vongdala’s residence to search for distinctive clothing identified from the burglary investigation.
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“When police served the search warrant, they encountered Vongdala leaving his two-bedroom apartment,” U.S. Attorney Tessa Gorman said in a prepared release. “In a backpack he carried, police found a stolen Glock firearm and more than two kilograms of MDMA. Some of the drugs were in smaller bags inside a larger zip lock bag labeled ‘sample.'”
Police recovered more than 2,300 fentanyl pills, 61 kilograms of MDMA (equivalent to 134.5 pounds) and nearly a kilogram of methamphetamine when scouring his residence through the search warrant. Smaller amounts of suspected heroin, cocaine and alprazolam were also found alongside more firearms, firearm parts, ammunition and body armor.
Law enforcement officials seized what they suspected to be armor-piercing bullets in addition to firearm magazines, extended magazines, drum magazines and a rifle with a casing catcher. A casing catcher is a device attached to the rifle that keeps shell casings from being left on the ground after the gun is fired.
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“Due to the quantity of drugs seized in this case, the penalties include a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison,” Gorman stated. “Possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime is punishable by an additional five years in prison which runs consecutively to any other sentence imposed in the case.”
Vongdala is charged with two counts of possession of controlled substances with intent to distribute, and one count of possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.
Frank Sumrall is a content editor at MyNorthwest. You can read his stories here and you can email him here.
