An U.S. District Court judge sentenced a former Kent man to two years and six months in prison for selling narcotics near a Seattle drug treatment center.
Mohamed Aweys Muse, 37, received the sentence Monday, Aug. 19 at U.S. District Court in Seattle, according to an Aug. 19 U.S. Department of Justice news release. Muse, who pleaded guilty May 9, also received three years of supervised release.
“Fentanyl is an extremely dangerous drug that has been ravaging our community… I am particularly concerned with the targeting of a methadone clinic,” U.S. District Judge John H. Chun said at the sentencing.
Muse has been in custody since his arrest in March 2023. He remains in custody at the Federal Detention Center in SeaTac, according to prison records.
According to documents filed in the case, Muse came to the attention of law enforcement in late 2022, when Muse was observed leaving an apartment in Kent each morning and making hand-to-hand drug sales in the area of Airport Way South and South Holgate Street in Seattle. Muse appeared to target the clients of a methadone clinic which was only a block away from where he was selling drugs.
In January 2023, Muse started staying overnight at a Lynnwood apartment, according to the news release. On Feb. 2, 2023, law enforcement served a court-authorized search warrant on both the Lynnwood and Kent apartments. In the Lynnwood apartment, investigators found fentanyl, cocaine and three firearms. In the Kent apartment, law enforcement found additional cocaine.
In asking for the three-year sentence, prosecutors wrote to the court:
“Muse regularly sold fentanyl in hand-to-hand transactions near a methadone clinic, targeting vulnerable individuals struggling to treat their addictions. This makes his drug trafficking particularly egregious and in reckless disregard for the safety of others.”
The case was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in collaboration with the King County Sheriff’s Office and the FBI.
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