SPOKANE, Wash. — A federal jury returned a guilty verdict in the trial of 45-year-old Luis Esquivel-Bolanos of Guerrero, Mexico on multiple drug trafficking and firearms charges.
Esquivel-Bolanos (a/k/a “Colorado”) faces a maximum term of imprisonment of life in prison. He may also face removal from the United States at his sentencing in July.
According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Esquivel-Bolanos was identified as a member of a drug trafficking organization which had “flooded” the Eastern District of Washington, including the Oroville area and the Colville Indian Reservation, with methamphetamine and fentanyl. The organization spread as far as central Montana, where many of the illegal drugs were reportedly being sold on Tribal land.
The evidence at trial established that Esquivel-Bolanos helped run the organization, which used threats to maintain control over their drug-distribution activities, such as strip-searching and threatening kill a confidential informant.
According to the attorney’s office, on April 19, 2023, BIA, DEA, the North Central Washington Narcotics Task Force, and other federal, state, local, and Tribal law enforcement, executed a series of federal search warrants at several homes in rural Okanogan County, near Oroville, Washington. In total, investigators reportedly seized approximately 161,000 fentanyl-laced pills, 80 pounds of methamphetamine, 6 pounds of heroin, 12 firearms, and more than 2 pounds of cocaine.
“The volume of drugs removed from Eastern Washington and Montana communities, including from Tribal land, is staggering. At the time of Mr. Esquivel-Bolanos’s arrest, and even now, the seizure from the Medrano-Bolanos drug trafficking organization was one of the largest ever in rural Washington. I am grateful for the tremendous law enforcement efforts by the BIA, DEA, and others, who put an end to the dangerous and threatening tactics used by Mr. Esquivel-Bolanos and his associates,” said acting U.S. Attorney Richard Barker.
“These agencies came together to address the drug trafficking occurring across many communities in Eastern Washington and Montana, including seven different Indian Reservations,” said Deputy Associate Director Tom Atkinson of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Division of Drug Enforcement. “This investigation revealed the purposeful and specific exploitation of Indian Country by the members of this criminal network, illustrating the importance of continued vigilance and cooperation among law enforcement agencies.”
“Mr. Esquivel- Bolanos was second in command of the drug trafficking ring responsible for flooding the Oroville area and Colville Indian Reservation with deadly fentanyl and meth,” said David F. Reames, Special Agent in Charge, DEA Seattle Field Division. “Drug traffickers who purposely prey on our tribal communities are the worst offenders, and with the help of the jury this Mexican National will be held accountable.”
To learn more about this case, and the twenty-seven defendants that were charged and convicted, visit the U.S. Attorney’s Office website.
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