Ex-business owner addicted to pain killers caught with 3,000 fentanyl pills in Richland
A Mongolian immigrant who became addicted to pain killers after a jet ski accident is headed to a federal prison after being caught with thousands of fentanyl pills that he planned to sell.
Tamir Batzogs, 41, came to the U.S. when he was just 15 and was allowed to legally stay for a time, eventually owning a construction company for 10 years.
But his addiction from his accident in college grew worse, and he deteriorated “physically, mentally and financially,” he said in a letter to U.S. District Court Judge Mary Dimke in Richland.
In March 2022, a Benton County sheriff’s deputy found him slumped over the steering wheel of an SUV with California plates in the Richland Winco parking lot, according to federal court documents.
As a deputy approached the car, Batzogs attempted to start the car and then was slow to respond to a request to get out of the car as if he was under the influence of drugs or alcohol, according court documents.
Deputies could see he had a handgun beneath his unzipped jacket and they found 2,966 fentanyl pills, 25 grams of meth, about 4 grams of heroin and another gun in the car.
The guns were later identified as a .22 caliber handgun and a .25 caliber handgun with an obliterated serial number.
Batzogs told police he knew he could not possess a gun as an undocumented immigrant, after previously trying to purchase one. One of the guns he had been reported stolen in Kirkland, Wash.
On Thursday, he was sentenced to three years and four months in prison, and then he likely will be deported to Mongolia.
He had been a recipient of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program but previously was unable to renew his status and is unsure why, his attorney said.
Batzogs pleaded guilty to one count of unlawful possession of a firearm by an alien unlawfully in the United States, and to charges of possession with intent to distribute fentanyl and methamphetamine, which were dismissed in a plea agreement.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Rebecca Perez asked Dimke to sentence Batzogs to over five years in prison.
“He has undergone some extremely difficult family experiences which undoubtedly have affected him deeply,” Perez said in a court document.
She also noted that he had helped others from Mongolia transition to life in the United States, including helping them find jobs and that he had no criminal convictions.
“But these facts cannot erase what occurred in this case,” she said in a court document. “Defendant has chosen to engage in conduct which harms others and puts many community members at risk.
Fentanyl deaths reached a record high in the Tri-Cities in 2022 and are the leading cause of overdose deaths in the nation.
Batzogs’ attorney, Jennifer Barnes of Yakima, asked for a sentence of two years in prison.
Pain killer addiction
Batzogs was sent to the United States by his mother to learn English at the age of 15, Barnes said. Both his father and his grandfather had died.
He had a difficult time after his sister, who was living in the United States, returned to Mongolia when he was 18, she said.
Batzogs was in a jet ski accident during college and became addicted to pain killers after three surgeries, according to court documents.
For a decade as an adult he was the owner of a construction company and employed workers. Batzogs told the judge in a letter that he also worked for the courts as an interpreter for people from Mongolia.
But his addiction worsened. He told the court that he regretted his actions and asked for treatment for his addiction.
However, his attorney said that because he will be an illegal immigrant in the federal prison system he may be excluded from addiction treatment services. He also needs mental health counseling for depression, she said.
She said he likely will be deported to Mongolia, a country he has not been to since he was a teenager and where he has few if any relatives, when he is released from prison.
This story was originally published May 19, 2023 at 5:00 AM.