SPOKANE, Wash. – The United States Department of Justice announced that a man charged for shooting at Spokane police officers and selling more than 400 grams of fentanyl in October 2022 has been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison.
36-year-old Israel Garcia, who received the sentence, was also ordered to pay over $6,000 to the Spokane Police Department and was placed on a period of five years of supervised release if he returned to the United States after serving his sentence.
The United States Department of Justice said that Garcia was originally from Mexico. Garcia later became a documented gang member living in Yakima, where he was convicted in 2015 for assaulting police officers relating to a drug and firearm trafficking investigation.
A judge release him to 84 months in federal custody. He was released in 2021 and deported to Mexico.
He returned illegally in 2022 and resumed drug trafficking and distributed thousands of fentanyl pills into the community, wrote the department.
On October 16, 2022, the day Spokane Police arrested him, Garcia travelled from Yakima to Spokane to deliver 10,000 fentanyl pills, wrote the department.
When Spokane police tried to arrest him, . Garcia’s gunfire put officers and bystanders at risk of being hit by bullets, but no one was harmed.
Garcia was arrested for violation of his supervised release before the consequences for the October 16 charges could take place.
“We have zero tolerance for dangerous offenders like Garcia who pose an immediate threat to our community and our law enforcement partners. Garcia opened fire on the police in the streets of Spokane, attempting to strike several police officers,” said Pete Serrano, the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Washington.
“It is unconscionable that he engaged in this behavior after having just been released from prison for the same kind of violent conduct. This case highlights the importance of our partnerships between our state and federal partners and how closely we work with the Spokane County Prosecutors Office,” Serrano continued.
“Mr. Garcia was a menace to our community, both because of his fentanyl trafficking as well as his violent behavior,” said David F. Reames, Special Agent in Charge, DEA Seattle Field Division. “Prison is clearly the right place for him, and I am proud that DEA and our partners could facilitate his lengthy incarceration.”
The case was investigated by the Spokane Police Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration.
