Tri-Citian used his stores to distribute drugs and launder money for Mexican cartel

A Benton City man is going to prison for leading an operation that moved as much as $40,000 in cocaine and meth a day between the Tri-Cities and Spokane.

The drug trafficking “cell” worked directly with leaders of the Sinaloa cartel, a notorious international drug trafficking, money laundering and organized crime organization from Mexico, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Eastern Washington.

Julio Leal Parra, 47, used his two Tri-Cities businesses — an upholstery shop and a meat market — to store drug shipments and launder large amounts of cash.

His operation brought drugs from Arizona and California to Kennewick, Spokane, Idaho and Montana.

So far, 10 members of the conspiracy have been convicted, said a release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Chief U.S. District Judge Stanley Bastian sentenced Leal Parra to nearly 16 years in federal prison after he pleaded guilty in leading and organizing the drug trafficking conspiracy, said the release.

He also was ordered to pay a $50,000 fine.

Four others, including Leal Parra’s nephew, two of his buyers from Spokane and one person who transported drugs for him, also pleaded guilty to being part of the operation.

Tri-Cities businesses

Leal Parra ran the operation out of a downtown Kennewick apartment building, as well as a Clearwater Avenue upholstery business, Perfect Design.

He also owned SuKarne, a meat market in Kennewick.

Over the course of the investigation, officers sized more than 60 pounds of methamphetamine, cocaine and heroin, including a single shipment of 33 pounds of meth.

His organization brought 20- to 50-pound shipments of drugs into the Tri-Cities every few weeks from December 2016 to October 2019.

He brought the drugs up from California and Arizona with the help of several different drivers including co-defendant Bianca Ortega, said federal prosecutors.

“Over several years, this high-level drug dealer was responsible for huge quantities of drugs being transported frequently through Eastern Washington and multiple other states,” said Donald M. Voiret, FBI Special Agent in Charge in Seattle.

Parra Leal’s nephew, Kevin Escarciga Leal, also was involved in transporting drugs.

That included one shipment that was caught in Kennewick with 32 pounds of nearly pure methamphetamine. The courier was caught with a passenger and a child in the car.

Spokane deliveries

Most of those shipments were headed to Spokane, where they ended up in the hands of one of four buyers, including two co-defendants, Kaelynn R. Hamilton and Kalista Ann Villa, say prosecutors.

“For years, Mr. Parra peddled life-ravaging narcotics throughout our region with no regard for the communities, families, and individuals he was destroying,” U.S. Attorney Vanessa R. Waldref said in a release. “The lengthy sentence imposed reflects the need to hold drug traffickers accountable for the serious harm they cause our community.”

She also credited the collaborations between the FBI, the Safe Streets Task Force in Tri-Cities, along with the Kennewick, Richland and Pasco police departments, Benton County Sheriff’s Office and Washington Department of Corrections.

“To ensure a safe and strong Eastern Washington community, investigations like this one require the combined efforts of federal state and local agencies,” she said.

Drug operation

Police first learned of Leal Parra’s drug operation after the arrest of his nephew, Escarciga Leal, in 2016. He was caught in St. Louis, Mo., with 2 kilograms of heroin and 5 kilograms of cocaine that he and his co-defendant were taking to Kentucky, say investigators.

The 2016 Nissan Maxima they were caught in was registered to a Pasco address.

The two men were each sentenced to a year and a half in federal prison for transporting drugs.

Around the same time, the FBI learned about a criminal enterprise working out of the Tri-Cities that was in need of money laundering.

As part of the investigation headed up out of Southern California, investigators tracked more than $1 million in drug cash dropped off between December 2017 and February 2018.

Starting in 2018, police started investigating Leal Parra’s organization and found that he was operating out of a converted Kennewick apartment building on First Avenue and a business on Clearwater Avenue.

Unnamed defendants and witnesses explained they would collect drugs from storage units and bring them to four buyers in Spokane.

One of the sources described bringing a pound of meth and cocaine to Spokane each day.

A courier then would bring back $20,000 to $40,000 from each delivery, according to court records.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephanie Van Marter.

This story was originally published March 28, 2022 at 12:51 PM.