Thaindian News

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON (BNO NEWS) – A Washington resident was sentenced for his role in the distribution of smuggled ecstasy pills, prosecutors said Monday.

Warren Taylor, 29, of University Place, Washington, was identified as a major participant in a drug-related conspiracy that smuggled ecstasy into the U.S. from Canada. Taylor sold over 700,000 pills of the nearly one million ecstasy pills that were distributed.

In January 2007, investigators identified Canadian national Gordon Sin as one of a group of people smuggling large amounts of ecstasy into the U.S. from Canada. After Sin was arrested selling 104,000 ecstasy pills, agents found 109,000 ecstasy pills and $81,000 in cash at his Seattle apartment.

Taylor recruited others to assist with the drug distribution scheme because he had two prior drug convictions. He subsequently did not handle the drugs in order to minimize his exposure to law enforcement, but investigations showed that Taylor made thousands of phone calls to his co-conspirators, contacting them as much as 30 times a day surrounding drug shipments. After the initial arrests in March 2007, the calls abruptly stopped.

“Taylor was the glue that held the entire conspiracy together. It was Taylor who initially brought Sin and Banks together, it was Taylor who personally brokered their drug deals, and it was Taylor who coordinated the ecstasy purchases and pickups,” Assistant United States Attorney Kate Crisham said.

“In fact, Taylor’s phone toll records revealed that he was in constant contact with Sin and Banks both prior to and during their drug deals – sometimes calling and texting them as much as thirty times a day. In short, there would have been no conspiracy without Taylor.”

Taylor was sentenced to 16 years in prison and six years of supervised release, after a week-long jury trial.

Gordon Sin was sentenced last year to five years in prison, and Ronald Banks, another co-conspirator, was sentenced to eight years in prison.