Over a dozen members of Tacoma gang indicted for gun and drug trafficking
Fourteen members of a Tacoma street gang were arrested Wednesday and later indicted following a large-scale multi-agency wiretap investigation, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles Neil Floyd announced in a press conference Friday.
The local street gang is affiliated with the Black Gangster Disciples organization. Homeland Security Investigations began the operation in Fall 2023, said HSI Special Agent April Miller.
On Feb. 4, law enforcement officials carried out approximately 16 simultaneous search warrants related to the case, spread across Washington, Oregon and California.
The operation netted 80 firearms, 500 kilograms of illegal narcotics and more than 100 Glock switches — illegal devices that allow semi-automatic weapons to be capable of fully automatic fire.
The lead defendant, 27-year-old Puyallup resident Kevin Salgado, allegedly led the group, distributing oxycodone, Xanax, methamphetamine, fentanyl and cocaine, according to a press release.
Law enforcement seized what’s equal to over 533,000 potentially lethal doses of fentanyl, which is more than seven times the number of people who will be attending the upcoming Super Bowl, Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent Robert Saccone said.
Besides obtaining illegal drugs through trafficking and pressing pills, some defendants are alleged to have hacked into drug distribution companies and rerouted shipments of controlled substances. Other defendants are alleged to have filled fake prescriptions through a pharmacist in Oregon for oxycodone and other narcotics, the press release said.
“Ringleader Kevin Salgado allegedly distributed the pills he manufactured in western Washington and across the country through the mail,” Floyd said. “So far three overdose deaths have been connected to Salgado’s activity.”
Special Agent Jonathan Blaze from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms emphasized the growing danger of glock switches, also known as machine gun conversion devices.
Glock switches used to be harder to come by, but the proliferation of 3D printing in recent years has allowed them to be created en masse, Blaze said.
“These devices dramatically increase a firearm’s lethality, reduce accuracy and significantly raise the threat to public safety and law enforcement,” Blaze said.
Floyd cited the arrests and indictment as an example of Homeland Security’s operations that aren’t related to immigration enforcement, a hot topic in today’s political climate.
“Sometimes people take it upon themselves to interfere with federal law enforcement because of the perception that they’re involved in immigration enforcement,” he said. “I highlight this case because it’s one of the great examples that had nothing to do with that. Everyone that was involved in this case was a United States citizen.”
When asked if he understood the fear that citizens may have when they see Homeland Security’s presence in their neighborhoods given the recent activity of ICE in cities across the U.S., Floyd said no.
“Obviously there are components of Homeland Security that deal with immigration enforcement, but that doesn’t mean that they all are,” Floyd said. “To bump everybody into the same bucket and then perpetuate that fear is just misguided and misinformed.”
This story was originally published February 6, 2026 at 4:24 PM.
