Washington state resident sentenced to 14 years in prison for role in fentanyl trafficking conspiracy

Date: Nov. 15, 2024

Contact: [email protected]

Johnstown, PA - A resident of SeaTac, Washington, was sentenced in federal court to 168 months in prison, to be followed by five years of supervised release, on his conviction of conspiracy to distribute and possession with intent to distribute fentanyl, United States Attorney Eric G. Olshan announced today.

Senior United States District Judge Kim R. Gibson imposed the sentence on Sahal Sahal on Nov. 14, 2024.

According to information presented to the Court, from in and around October 2022 to in and around June 2023, in the Western District of Pennsylvania, Sahal conspired with others to distribute and possess with intent to distribute 400 grams or more of fentanyl. Sahal was intercepted on a federal wiretap obtaining quantities of fentanyl that he distributed to others.

Assistant United States Attorney Arnold P. Bernard Jr. prosecuted this case on behalf of the government.

United States Attorney Olshan commended the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Laurel Highlands Resident Agency and Homeland Security Investigations for the investigation that led to the successful prosecution of Sahal. Additional agencies participating in this investigation include the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), United States Postal Inspection Service, and other local law enforcement agencies.

This prosecution is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) investigation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level drug traffickers, money launderers, gangs, and transnational criminal organizations that threaten the United States by using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multiagency approach that leverages the strengths of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies against criminal networks.

IRS-CI is the criminal investigative arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money-laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. IRS-CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a more than a 90 percent federal conviction rate. The agency has 20 field offices located across the U.S. and 12 attaché posts abroad.