A 40-year-old Everett man received a six-year prison sentence for his role in a drug trafficking ring that operated from Kent to Everett.
Lamin Saho, aka “Buck,” was a significant fentanyl dealer identified in a wiretap investigation that culminated with 14 arrests in October 2024 and five additional arrests in late 2025, according to a Jan. 26 U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) press release.
Members of the ring frequented two distribution locations in the University District of Seattle. Many of the drug traffickers were armed when guarding their stash or distributing their drugs, according to DOJ. The leader of the drug crew was gunned down in the summer of 2024, in front of one of the U District locations.
“Fentanyl is a dangerous drug that has devastated far too many lives,” said U.S. District Court Judge John H. Chun at the Jan. 26 sentencing hearing in Seattle. “One has only to walk out on the streets of Seattle to see how it has devastated our community.”
“Mr. Saho distributed thousands of fentanyl pills – the calls recorded on the wiretap indicated he had access to as many as 10,000 pills at a time,” said U.S. Attorney Charles Neil Floyd. “Each one of those pills had the potential of killing the user. Our community is safer when we are able to prosecute these drug trafficking rings and get the suppliers behind bars.”
The month-long telephone intercepts of Saho’s phone revealed he was one of the most prolific distributors of fentanyl within the drug trafficking group. Even after law enforcement seized 5,000 pills from Saho in a traffic stop, wiretap intercepts show he was wholly undeterred and continued to traffic fentanyl through the end of the interception period.
In the yearlong investigation, law enforcement seized 200,000 fentanyl pills, four kilograms of cocaine, 60 firearms, several Glock “switches,” multiple suppressors, and $250,000 in cash drug trafficking proceeds.
Members of the drug ring have been sentenced to prison terms ranging from four years to ten years, including Khaliil Ahmed, aka “Bossup,” 28, of Kent. He was sentenced in August 2025 to six years in prison for two counts of illegally possessing firearms. He was identified as a member of a drug trafficking conspiracy. He was injured in a fatal hookah bar shooting in South Seattle on Aug. 20, 2023.
At the sentencing for Saho, he was ordered to serve four years of supervised release following his six-year prison term. However, he is a citizen of The Gambia who does not have immigration status in the U.S. and will likely be removed following his prison term.
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