Local briefly: Fight triggers prison lockdown

MONROE — A unit at the Monroe prison complex was placed on lockdown on Wednesday after a fight involving 12 inmates, state officials reported.

No inmates suffered serious injuries, and no staff members were hurt.

The fight occurred in the Washington State Reformatory, which houses about 800 inmates. It’s one of the five units at the state’s largest prison complex, which has about 2,400 inmates.

All offenders involved in the fight have been placed in segregation in the prison complex’s maximum security unit, which became fully operational in January.

The lockdown is expected to continue through the weekend as officials conduct interviews and search for contraband.

Everett: Sentence in marijuana case

A Seattle woman with ties to a south Everett marijuana grow operation where two people were killed was sentenced Wednesday to five years in a federal prison.

U.S. District Judge John Coughenour also ordered Thuy Thi Ngog Nguyen, 37, to five years of supervised release for her role in grow operations in Everett and Seattle.

Federal prosecutors accused Nguyen of recruiting Vietnamese immigrants to tend and harvest plants.

Those recruits included Linda Nguyen, 20, and her boyfriend, Kevin Meas, 23. They were killed in a home along Dexter Avenue in Everett in July. Police found 1,200 plants in the home.

Areewa Saray, 20, and Saroeun Phai, 24, both of Tacoma, each are charged with two counts of aggravated first-­degree murder in the execution-style killings.

Federal prosecutors linked more than 2,000 plants to Thuy Nguyen, who pleaded guilty in November to conspiracy to manufacture marijuana.

From Herald staff reports

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