Mexico traffickers indicted in Seattle

• Tweet

SEATTLE, Aug. 19 (UPI) -- Fifteen people were in custody Friday after a Seattle grand jury indicted members of an alleged Mexican drug smuggling ring, federal prosecutors said.

Eighteen individuals were named in the indictment against the reputed Sinaloa ring, which allegedly smuggled methamphetamines and heroin across the border into Arizona and then shipped it as far away as Ohio and the Pacific Northwest.

The indictment was issued late Thursday following an investigation by federal and local law enforcement officers in the Seattle area.

The South Snohomish County Narcotics Task Force and the DEA quietly began making arrests in the Seattle area in June, seizing seven pounds of heroin and 8 pounds of meth along with an AK-47 assault rifle, the U.S attorney's office said in a written statement.

Investigators learned the group allegedly stashed drugs in a safe house in Arizona and then transported them to other U.S. cities in vehicles equipped with hidden compartments.