Two men indicted on drug charges after 11 pounds of heroin found

MARYSVILLE — The 11 pounds of heroin stashed away in a black duffle bag in the backseat of a pickup truck was headed for the streets of Snohomish County.

It was bundled into eight separate packages and worth about $180,000 wholesale. It would have netted much more once it was repackaged and sold off.

On Wednesday, a federal grand jury in Seattle indicted two men on multiple crimes for a drug-trafficking ring operating out of Marysville. The men were arrested in August after they allegedly sold heroin to an informant working with police.

The informant reported back to detectives that Socorro Alejandres-Alvarez offered to sell him up to 50 kilograms, or 110 pounds, of heroin at a price of $1.8 million, Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Lisa Paul wrote in court papers.

Alejandres-Alvarez, 25, initially was charged in Snohomish County Superior Court following an investigation by Homeland Security and the Snohomish Regional Drug and Gang Task Force.

The state charge was dismissed earlier this month when the case was turned over to federal prosecutors.

A U.S. District Court grand jury indicted Alejandres-Alvarez, a Mexican national, with drug and weapons charges. A second man, Juan Carlos Ortiz-Ramos, also was indicted. The men were being detained pending trial. Alejandres-Alvarez has been deported back to Mexico at least twice, according to court records.

Detectives became aware of the men in July after receiving a tip that they were selling large quantities of heroin.

Two informants met with Alejandres-Alvarez inside a Lynnwood Panda Express, where they discussed the possible sale of 20 to 50 kilograms of heroin at $36,000 per kilo, according to court documents. Alejandres-Alvarez allegedly offered to take the informants to his Marysville house to show them his supply. They declined but agreed to meet up with him later to get a sample.

Investigators followed Alejandres-Alvarez to his Marysville house, located in the 6700 block of 71st Street NE.

About two weeks later, he allegedly met with an informant at a McDonald’s on the Tulalip Indian Reservation where he handed over an ounce of heroin for free. He told the informant he wasn’t going to sell multiple kilos during their first deal. Instead, they talked about the sale of five kilograms, or roughly 11 pounds.

Alejandres-Alvarez allegedly called the informant a couple of weeks later to arrange the deal. He said he’d just received his shipment and they agreed to meet up a in a few days.

Investigators set up surveillance on Alejandres-Alvarez’s Marysville house. The informant met him at the Tulalip Walmart. The two stayed behind while Ortiz-Ramos retrieved a black duffle back from the Marysville house.

He returned to Walmart where he met up with the two waiting men. Police arrested the defendants as they drove away.

They found a loaded handgun and broken cellphone on the floorboard. They searched the truck and located 11 pounds of heroin in the black duffle bag Ortiz-Ramos was seen loading into the pickup.

Alejandres-Alvarez said he’d picked up the drugs earlier in the day in a parking lot in north Seattle. He told police he’d only known his supplier for a week but declined to say anything more about the man.

The seized heroin would have fed the growing epidemic that is killing thousands of people nationwide every year.

Heroin deaths rates have quadrupled over the past decade, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In Snohomish County, heroin and prescription opioids were responsible for two-thirds of the 130 accidental overdose deaths in 2013.

The sheriff’s office reported in June that more than 90 percent of the inmates locked up in the county jail’s medical unit were withdrawing from heroin.

Meanwhile roughly 70 percent of those admitted to the county’s only publicly funded detox facility report that heroin is their drug of choice.

Heroin-use exploded in recent years as people addicted to prescription pain medications looked for a cheaper alternative.

Mexico produces nearly half of the heroin sold in the U.S. Afghanistan is the largest producer in the world, supplying Europe and Asia.

The Mexican heroin trade is mostly run by the notoriously violent Sinaloa cartel that for decades controlled the pipeline of cocaine and marijuana shipped to the U.S.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463; hefley@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @dianahefley.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Local News

A firefighter stands in silence before a panel bearing the names of L. John Regelbrugge and Kris Regelbrugge during the ten-year remembrance of the Oso landslide on Friday, March 22, 2024, at the Oso Landslide Memorial in Oso, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘Flood of emotions’ as Oso Landslide Memorial opens on 10th anniversary

Friends, family and first responders held a moment of silence at 10:37 a.m. at the new 2-acre memorial off Highway 530.

Julie Petersen poses for a photo with images of her sister Christina Jefferds and Jefferds’ grand daughter Sanoah Violet Huestis next to a memorial for Sanoah at her home on March 20, 2024 in Arlington, Washington. Peterson wears her sister’s favorite color and one of her bangles. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
‘It just all came down’: An oral history of the Oso mudslide

Ten years later, The Daily Herald spoke with dozens of people — first responders, family, survivors — touched by the deadliest slide in U.S. history.

Victims of the Oso mudslide on March 22, 2014. (Courtesy photos)
Remembering the 43 lives lost in the Oso mudslide

The slide wiped out a neighborhood along Highway 530 in 2014. “Even though you feel like you’re alone in your grief, you’re really not.”

Director Lucia Schmit, right, and Deputy Director Dara Salmon inside the Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management on Friday, March 8, 2024, in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
How Oso slide changed local emergency response ‘on virtually every level’

“In a decade, we have just really, really advanced,” through hard-earned lessons applied to the pandemic, floods and opioids.

Ron and Gail Thompson at their home on Monday, March 4, 2024 in Oso, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
In shadow of scarred Oso hillside, mudslide’s wounds still feel fresh

Locals reflected on living with grief and finding meaning in the wake of a catastrophe “nothing like you can ever imagine” in 2014.

Rep. Suzan DelBene, left, introduces Xichitl Torres Small, center, Undersecretary for Rural Development with the U.S. Department of Agriculture during a talk at Thomas Family Farms on Monday, April 3, 2023, in Snohomish, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Under new federal program, Washingtonians can file taxes for free

At a press conference Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene called the Direct File program safe, easy and secure.

Former Snohomish County sheriff’s deputy Jeremie Zeller appears in court for sentencing on multiple counts of misdemeanor theft Wednesday, March 27, 2024, at Snohomish County Superior Court in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Ex-sheriff’s deputy sentenced to 1 week of jail time for hardware theft

Jeremie Zeller, 47, stole merchandise from Home Depot in south Everett, where he worked overtime as a security guard.

Everett
11 months later, Lake Stevens man charged in fatal Casino Road shooting

Malik Fulson is accused of shooting Joseph Haderlie to death in the parking lot at the Crystal Springs Apartments last April.

T.J. Peters testifies during the murder trial of Alan Dean at the Snohomish County Courthouse on Tuesday, March 26, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Bothell cold case trial now in jury’s hands

In court this week, the ex-boyfriend of Melissa Lee denied any role in her death. The defendant, Alan Dean, didn’t testify.

A speed camera facing west along 220th Street Southwest on Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2023 in Edmonds, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
New Washington law will allow traffic cams on more city, county roads

The move, led by a Snohomish County Democrat, comes as roadway deaths in the state have hit historic highs.

Mrs. Hildenbrand runs through a spelling exercise with her first grade class on the classroom’s Boxlight interactive display board funded by a pervious tech levy on Tuesday, March 19, 2024 in Marysville, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Lakewood School District’s new levy pitch: This time, it won’t raise taxes

After two levies failed, the district went back to the drawing board, with one levy that would increase taxes and another that would not.

Alex Hanson looks over sections of the Herald and sets the ink on Wednesday, March 30, 2022 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Black Press, publisher of Everett’s Daily Herald, is sold

The new owners include two Canadian private investment firms and a media company based in the southern United States.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.