BOTHELL — A Bothell man and a Maple Valley woman, both accused of taking part in an international drug trafficking operation, have pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in central California.
U.S. attorneys say Jeff Allyn Walker, 50, was a drug courier, and Amy Kim Hartlmueller-Torres, 55, was one of the people he reported to. Both were sentenced last year for drug offenses — conspiracy to distribute and possession with intent to distribute.
Last June, Hartlmueller-Torres got a sentence of 2¾ years in prison.
Then, in December, a federal judge sentenced Walker to 2½ years. At the time, he had already spent over two years in jail.
Other suspects in the case are awaiting trial.
Walker played a small role in the trafficking scheme, but his arrest was a turning point in an investigation that led to charges against more than two dozen people. Charging papers allege they exported hundreds of pounds of narcotics, including cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine, from Mexico to Canada. They reportedly used encrypted phones and coded language to coordinate the operation.
In May 2018, Walker was driving a black Ford Explorer when California Highway Patrol officers pulled him over for speeding, according to court documents. Inside the SUV, they found 200 pounds of cocaine and learned that Walker allegedly had been regularly transporting drugs to Washington. Walker reportedly worked at the direction of Hartlmueller and David Joner, 58, of Fall City.
According to court papers, Walker would drive down to Los Angeles to pick up shipments of drugs and return to Bothell, where he’d swap the car with Joner, who allegedly took the shipment to Canada.
Joner reportedly then dropped the car for Walker, with up to $15,000 in cash inside, prosecutors allege. Walker reported he had made the trip about 30 times, according to documents. He explained he had been a struggling car salesman in Seattle when Joner, previously a manager at the dealership, offered him a job transporting drugs. Walker said he “couldn’t pass up an opportunity to make some money,” detectives wrote in the search warrant.
In a sentencing memorandum, defense attorney Peter Swarth argued the court should grant Walker “compassion and mercy” in sentencing him. He explained that Walker was born in South Korea, where he ran away from his parents and was placed in an orphanage. He was then adopted by a couple in Seattle, where life was little better.
Hartlmueller-Torres also was an orphan who had been adopted in Washington. Defense attorney James Tedford II wrote she was seduced and fooled by Joner.
The two knew each other in high school and had reconnected in recent years, after a chance meeting at a bank where she worked, according to court documents. Joner reportedly convinced Hartlmueller-Torres to help out with two business ventures: the supposed invention of a three-wheeled vehicle called a “Tri-Secta,” and then a logging business, though he knew nothing about logging. Both failed.
Finally, Joner persuaded her to take part in the drug trafficking scheme, Tedford wrote.
The investigation also pointed detectives to the accused dealers’ unidentified contact in Canada and to Tye McNabb, a mechanic who allegedly installed secret compartments in vehicles, including Walker’s.
In sentencing memorandums, U.S. attorneys had recommended four years for Walker and nearly six years for Hartlmueller-Torres.
Others who were indicted, including Joner and McNabb, have a trial set for Aug. 2.
The case was investigated by the Snohomish Regional Drug & Gang Task Force, the FBI, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Los Angeles Police Department.
Zachariah Bryan: 425-339-3431; zbryan@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @zachariahtb.
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