A 53-year-old Rochester man was sentenced Thursday in U.S. District Court in Seattle to seven years in prison for two federal felonies related to his armed drug trafficking activity, U.S. Attorney Tessa M. Gorman announced in a news release.
Waylan Graves was arrested twice in a four-month period in 2023, each time drugs and loaded firearms.
On June 1, 2023, Graves was arrested by officers with the Thurston County Narcotics Enforcement Team. Law enforcement served a search warrant on Graves’ home and car.
“In the home they found fentanyl pills, two firearms (one of them loaded) and nearly $5,000 in cash,” the U.S. Department of Justice wrote in the release. “In Graves’ car they found a third loaded firearm as well as fentanyl pills, methamphetamine, cocaine and heroin. In the car was more than $10,000 in cash.”
Graves was charged with drug- and gun-related crimes in Thurston County Superior Court. He was released on bail. Less than four months later, he was arrested a second time for drug trafficking.