SPOKANE, WA — A 36-year-old Mexican national who unlawfully re-entered the United States has been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison after opening fire on Spokane police officers during a fentanyl trafficking operation.
On Thursday, U.S. Chief District Judge Stanley A. Bastian sentenced Israel Garcia to two decades in federal custody following his guilty pleas to discharging a firearm during and in relation to a drug trafficking crime and possession with intent to distribute more than 400 grams of fentanyl. Garcia was also ordered to pay over $6,000 in restitution to the Spokane Police Department. If he returns to the U.S. after his prison term, he will be subject to five years of supervised release.
Court records show Garcia, a documented gang member from the Yakima area, has a violent criminal history. In 2015, he was convicted of assault on federal officers during a drug and firearm trafficking investigation and served seven years in prison before being deported in 2021. He unlawfully returned to the U.S. in 2022 and resumed trafficking, distributing thousands of fentanyl pills into local communities…