Tacoma man who helped traffic ‘millions of dollars of deadly drugs’ sentenced
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- Tacoma man sentenced to 10 years for running Atlanta cocaine stash house
- Court records show stash house sold about 86 kg of cocaine during June-July 2022
- Investigators found cash, guns, drugs and ledgers; four co-defendants pleaded guilty
A Tacoma man who ran a cocaine stash house in the Atlanta area as part of a network of drug traffickers moving cocaine across the United States has been sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Maurice Lynch, 50, pleaded guilty in September to conspiracy to possess cocaine with intent to distribute in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. Judge Michael L. Brown sentenced Lynch on Jan. 7.
Federal prosecutors say Lynch’s brother, Ramondo, led the drug ring along with Mario Earl, and that at least six other people were involved. Earl and Ramondo have pleaded not guilty to multiple drug and firearm charges in Georgia.
“Lynch was part of a large network of cocaine traffickers that peddled millions of dollars of deadly drugs from a metro-Atlanta residence,” U.S. Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg said in a news release. “Our office will continue to work tirelessly with our law enforcement partners to hold dangerous drug dealers accountable.”
Ledgers maintained by the drug-trafficking organization showed that 86 kilograms (about 189 pounds) of cocaine was sold out of the stash house Lynch ran between June 8 and July 18, 2022, according to court documents. The two-story house from which Lynch sold the drugs is in a residential neighborhood near Fairburn, Georgia, about 20 miles southwest of Atlanta.
It was one of several cocaine stash houses investigators identified as part of the drug ring. Others were located in Atlanta, North Carolina, Maryland, New Jersey and elsewhere.
Agents zeroed in on the house Lynch ran by surveilling a co-conspirator, according to federal prosecutors’ sentencing memorandum. The co-conspirator left another stash house owned by Ramondo Lynch and traveled to the Fairburn house, where Lynch gave her two bags containing $14,000 and a money counter.
Later that day, on July 18, 2022, Lynch left the house in an Uber with his daughter. Georgia State Patrol troopers stopped the vehicle and Lynch ran, tossing aside a backpack that contained two kilograms (about 4.4 pounds) of cocaine. Troopers arrested Lynch.
Inside the Fairburn house, agents found $112,891 in cash in a shoebox and in a closet. They also found an AK-47 and a pistol, psilocybin chocolate bars, marijuana edibles and drug ledgers.
Ahead of sentencing, prosecutors and Lynch’s defense attorney jointly recommended a prison term of 11 years, 3 months, according to court records.
Prosecutors said Lynch’s crime involved a dangerous drug that, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, causes more than 22,000 people to die every year from overdoses.
Lynch previously was arrested on suspicion of assault and robbery, but he did not have any convictions for drug trafficking or violent crimes. That was something his defense attorney, Daniel Crumby, pointed to in asking the judge to impose the recommended sentence.
“Given Mr. Lynch’s lack of qualifying prior convictions, his age, his troubled upbringing, the untimely and tragic loss of two children, and his documented history of substance use, the agreed term reasonably balances punishment with the potential for rehabilitation,” Crumby wrote in a sentencing memorandum.
Four other people have pleaded guilty to drug charges in connection to the network of cocaine traffickers, which the Drug Enforcement Administration began investigating in 2021.
Lynch’s brother, Ramondo, was arrested in Northern California in January 2024 but appears to have ties to Tacoma. Court documents say he owned and operated Executive Printing in the 3800 block of South Yakima Avenue. He also owned and operated Upscale Investments LLC in Tukwila and Lynch Management & Consulting in Seattle.
The other alleged leader of the drug ring, Mario Earl, was arrested in Western Washington in January 2024. He was convicted in 2010 in U.S. District Court of conspiracy to distribute marijuana.
