A federal judge sentenced a Tacoma couple for drug trafficking after they were found with more than 23 pounds of methamphetamine, according to the U.S. District Attorney's Office.
U.S. District Judge Benjamin H. Settle gave Jaymes Arthur Gallagher seven years in prison Wednesday. He gave Brittany Nicole Chipman five years, six months.
"The quantity of methamphetamine in this case is staggering ... and it is not just addicts that are suffering, it is their families too," Settle said at 28-year-old Chipman's sentencing.
She and Gallagher, 34, each pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute controlled substances and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime last year.
"According to records filed in the case, Gallagher came to the attention of law enforcement as a significant distributor of methamphetamine in the Thurston County and Tacoma areas," the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a news release. "After some undercover purchases in August 2019, law enforcement obtained a court authorized search warrant for the home Gallagher and Chipman shared."
Investigators found 19 pounds of methamphetamine in a detached garage, and six pounds of MDMA, more than a pound of cocaine, more than four pounds of methamphetamine, $76,000, a shotgun and a pistol in the home.
Gallagher allegedly told investigators he bought 20 to 30 pounds of methamphetamine from California about every week and distributed it in Washington.
"Jaymes has done a remarkable job turning his life around and making amends over the almost two years he was on bond and awaiting sentence," defense attorney Colin Fieman said via email Wednesday. "He had a great job, tremendous support from his employer and family, successfully completed drug treatment, and been clean and sober since the date of his arrest after being drawn into his offenses because of his substance abuse disorder."
Fieman said his client's sentence was less than half of what he could have gotten "under our callous mandatory sentencing schemes, and he is a great example of how alternatives to needlessly prolonged incarceration help not only individual offenders but also the community by enhancing public safety in the long term."
Assistant United States Attorney Angelica Williams wrote in her sentencing memorandum that Gallagher "has introduced hundreds of thousands of doses of harmful narcotics into Western Washington. He made a profit. He purchased firearms and kept them loaded to protect his business. He turned a blind eye to the harm he was doing to the community."
The Drug Enforcement Agency and the Joint Narcotics Enforcement Team investigated.
