U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced that Jorge Aguilar-Martinez was sentenced to 54 months in prison for conspiracy to distribute fentanyl and methamphetamine and illegal reentry after removal.
Aguilar-Martinez, a Honduran national, was sentenced April 21 in U.S. District Court in Seattle. The sentence followed Operation Sledgehammer, a Homeland Security Investigations-led task force investigation into a conspiracy to distribute fentanyl and methamphetamine throughout the Pacific Northwest, according to an ICE press release.
Aguilar-Martinez was arrested in October 2025 with two co-conspirators. Investigators seized 28 pounds of methamphetamine and 10,000 fentanyl pills during the case. The co-conspirators were charged and later removed to their home countries.
Fentanyl-involved deaths in King County, Washington, increased from fewer than 200 in 2020 to more than 1,000 in 2023. The Drug Enforcement Administration also reported that 4.8 million lethal doses of fentanyl were removed in Washington state during 2023, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Provisional federal data showed U.S. drug overdose deaths declined in 2024, while synthetic opioids, including fentanyl, remained involved in tens of thousands of deaths. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 48,422 synthetic opioid-involved overdose deaths in 2024, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Homeland Security Investigations is the investigative arm of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. HSI investigates cross-border crime, including narcotics smuggling, and works with law enforcement partners in the United States and abroad, according to Homeland Security Investigations.