KNDO/KNDU Tri-Cities, Yakima, WA | Feds: Drug conspiracy centered at Wash. smokeshop
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Associated Press - October 20, 2009 5:05 PM ET
TACOMA, Wash. (AP) - Federal agents say they've arrested five people in an oxycodone ring that sold hundreds of pills a day from tribal smokeshops on the Puyallup reservation.
According to a complaint unsealed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Tacoma, Billy Miranda Flores and his father, Bill Celeya Flores, sold the oxycodone from the Indian Smoke Shop in Milton and the Little Red Smoke Shop in Tacoma.
The complaint, filed by FBI agent Donald Treat, alleges a conspiracy in which the pair sold to other dealers, and that Billy Flores used proceeds to fund an extravagant lifestyle that included following the Seattle Seahawks on road trips and wagering tens of thousands of dollars on boxing matches in Las Vegas.
The FBI says the 18-month investigation involved controlled drug buys and the use of confidential informants, some of whom said they had been customers of the Flores family for years.
The pair are not believed to be enrolled members of the Puyallup tribe.
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