Seattle – A 22-year-old Mexican national illegally present in the U.S. was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Seattle to six years in prison for drug and gun crimes, announced First Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles Neil Floyd. Jesus Cristerna Lucas delivered 5,000 fentanyl pills to an undercover agent in November 2024 as part of a Homeland Security Task Force Investigation. This drug sale came mere months after he had been arrested in California with a large load of methamphetamine and more than $100,000 in cash drug proceeds. At today’s sentencing hearing U.S. District Judge James L. Robart highlighted the danger of fentanyl saying, “You were unleashing in this community the dire threat of death from those pills… This is someone who needs to be removed from society.”

According to records filed in the case, Cristerna Lucas came to the attention of law enforcement during a wiretap investigation of a drug trafficking organization. The investigation was led by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). Lucas agreed to sell the undercover agent 5,000 fentanyl pills. The drugs tested positive for fentanyl.

On July 2, 2025, Cristerna Lucas was arrested while driving in Seattle. DEA agents found that he had a Ruger AR-556 semi-automatic rifle and three loaded magazines and multiple rounds of .223 ammunition in his car. He was booked federally and charged with conspiracy to distribute controlled substances. In June 2026 he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute controlled substances and unlawful possession of a firearm.

Cristerna Lucas will next be transferred to King County custody since he has been linked to a robbery plot that resulted in a fatal shooting in November 2024.

Judge Robart ordered four years of supervised release to follow the federal prison term. However, Lucas will likely be deported following his prison sentence.

“As a drug courier, Mr. Cristerna Lucas was responsible for trafficking thousands of deadly fentanyl pills into Western Washington and putting lives at risk,” said Robert A. Saccone, Special Agent in Charge, DEA Seattle Field Division. “Drug trafficking and firearms are a deadly combination. When the defendant was arrested, he possessed a semi-automatic rifle. Through Fentanyl Free America, DEA is disrupting the fentanyl supply chain, reducing its availability, and protecting American lives.”

The case was investigated by the DEA, HSI, and the Puyallup Police Department. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Casey Conzatti.

This investigation is part of the Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) initiative established by Executive Order 14159, Protecting the American People Against Invasion. The HSTF is a whole-of-government partnership dedicated to eliminating criminal cartels, foreign gangs, transnational criminal organizations, and human smuggling and trafficking rings operating in the United States and abroad. Through historic interagency collaboration, the HSTF directs the full might of United States law enforcement towards identifying, investigating, and prosecuting the full spectrum of crimes committed by these organizations, which have long fueled violence and instability within our borders. In performing this work, the HSTF places special emphasis on investigating and prosecuting those engaged in child trafficking or other crimes involving children. The HSTF further utilizes all available tools to prosecute and remove the most violent criminal aliens from the United States. HSTF Seattle comprises agents and officers from Homeland Security Investigations, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), The United States Marshals Service (USMS), the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigations (IRS-CI), the United States Secret Service (USSS), U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and the U.S. Coast Guard Investigative Service, with the prosecution being led by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington.