Seattle man gets 2 years in prison for selling cocaine, fentanyl in ‘The Jungle’

A 46-year-old Seattle man was sentenced Wednesday to two years in federal prison for his role in a drug trafficking ring that sold cocaine and fentanyl in Seattle homeless encampments and the Chinatown-International District.

Sang Su was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Seattle. He pleaded guilty in July to conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance and has been in custody since his arrest in August 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced.

“It is aggravating that you were selling significant amounts of cocaine and fentanyl to some of the most marginalized members of our community,” U.S. District Judge Tana Lin told Su at the hearing.

Lin also ordered three years of supervised release after Su gets out of prison.

Caught on a wiretap

Investigators heard Su on a wiretap talking about selling cocaine and getting “samples” of fentanyl powder.

Police first stopped Su in October 2024, right after he bought drugs from the group’s leader at a market on Beacon Hill, according to court records. Officers seized drugs and a gun from his car.

“He directly interacted with the group leader and further endangered the public by possessing a loaded firearm to protect the proceeds of the trafficking,” said W. Mike Herrington, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Seattle field office.

Investigation began after violence near encampments

The FBI and Seattle Police Department (SPD) started the investigation in 2023, responding to drug-related violence in and around homeless encampments in the Chinatown-International District and in the greenbelt along I-5 known as “The Jungle,” according to court records.

On May 29, 2025, officers served 16 search warrants in Federal Way, Vancouver, Everett, Pacific, Tukwila, Kent, Issaquah and Seattle, along with Woodlake, California, and Beaverton, Oregon.

Across all locations, they seized cocaine, methamphetamine, fentanyl pills, 17 guns, and $353,000 in cash.

Su wasn’t arrested in those raids. Officers caught up with him Aug. 18, 2025.

Prosecutors point to past arrests

In their sentencing memo, prosecutors said Su had multiple contacts with law enforcement between 2002 and 2025, including arrests for assault, drug offenses and carrying loaded guns. They acknowledged those cases were dismissed or never charged, but wrote that the “law enforcement interventions failed to curtail Su’s criminal acts.”

“Whether you are a low-level distributor or a high-volume dealer, we will prosecute you,” Acting U.S. Attorney Charles Neil Floyd said. “He has earned his time in prison, which will hopefully break his cycle of crime.”

Su is the latest defendant sentenced in the case. The group’s leader, Daniel Ibarra Loera of Kent, was sentenced in September to eight years in prison. Later that month, Leonardo Rojas Cruz of Federal Way was handed a three-year sentence. Four other co-defendants received sentences ranging from one year to six years.

The case was led by the FBI, SPD, and the Drug Enforcement Administration, as part of the federal Homeland Security Task Force.

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