Thank you Mayor Brown -- I am grateful for the opportunity to be here with our federal partner DEA and our powerful community and law enforcement stakeholders.
I was born and raised right here in Spokane, and my husband and I now proudly raise our two kids here. I deeply care for everyone’s safety here in Eastern Washington. Our Spokane community is facing an extraordinary challenge with the growing and continued influx of deadly fentanyl and other drugs. The downtown area has been hit particularly hard. The fentanyl crisis is the new face of the opioid epidemic and the death and tragedy that we are witnessing are staggering.
As the United States Attorney, the mission of my office is to build a safe and strong Eastern Washington community -- and that starts right here with building critical partnerships to have both law enforcement strategies with our key partners at the Spokane Police Department and Spokane County Sheriff’s Office as well as proactive engagement to empower our community to protect our loved ones.
My job as the chief federal prosecutor is to set strategic enforcement priorities to identify and prosecute the most significant drivers of violent crime. Drug trafficking and violent crime are closely linked. My team works closely with DEA and all our law enforcement partners, and we have seized hundreds of thousands of poison fentanyl pills and other drugs – keeping these dangerous substances out of the hands of drug traffickers and out of our community.
We are prioritizing the prosecution of fentanyl cases – vigorously seeking to disrupt the sources of drugs in our communities and to send a strong deterrent message to criminal drug networks.
I’d like to highlight two cases:
United States v. Alexander Kosnicki:
- Mr. Kosnicki is a repeat offender, who was distributing drugs just blocks away from here at Catholic Charities locations. Mr. Kosnicki, who was convicted at trial and is awaiting sentencing, was trespassing at an apartment complex, when he was contacted by law enforcement. After he was arrested, law enforcement located a stolen gun and large amounts of fentanyl inside his sock, along with a substantial amount of U.S. currency from drug trafficking. The case came together and was able to be prosecuted in federal court because of the incredible partnership between state, local, and federal law enforcement agencies, including the ATF, DEA, and Spokane Police Department.
- Criminal Enterprise Take Down: Large scale organized crime operations, leading to nearly 40 criminal indictments throughout Eastern Washington, including in Spokane, Yakima, Walla Walla and elsewhere. That case, which involved tremendous collaboration between the Drug Enforcement Administration, Homeland Security Investigations, Bureau of Prisons, U.S Marshals Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Yakima Police Department, Yakima County Sheriff’s Office, and the Washington State Department of Corrections led the recovery of significant quantities of drugs, guns, and drug proceeds from throughout the greater Spokane area, and throughout Washington state.
We will continue this effort – and every day my team is seeking justice in these critical cases, but we have to do more to stop the flood of these poison pills into our community. Federal prosecutors around the country are working closely with our Tribal, federal, state, and local partners to identify and prosecute the drug traffickers who seek to profit from the sale of these deadly substances in our communities. We target the command and control elements of the cartels, the money launderers, and the violent and heartless individuals who choose to sell this poison. Through our law enforcement efforts, we are seeking to hold these criminals responsible for the damage that they have caused to our communities.
On the prevention front, we have partnered with DEA, which works closely with our law enforcement partners, local governments, and community outreach organizations, such as the Spokane Alliance for Fentanyl Education and the Rayce Rudeen Foundation community education and prevention strategies – focusing on outreach to our youth about the dangers of illicit fentanyl.
I call this an All Hands on Deck strategy by state, local, and federal law enforcement. Prosecution, Prevention, and Treatment.
The impact and overall effectiveness of this initiative is directly dependent on the community, law enforcement, health care, prevention and social service professionals working together to mitigate the fentanyl drug threat. I am committed to prosecuting the criminal drug cartels who put our communities and our youth at risk. Our office has been prosecuting fentanyl cases since 2016, and we will continue vigorously prosecuting these cases as part of our ongoing efforts to build safer and stronger communities in the Eastern District of Washington.
