Sang Su

Introduction

Sang Su, a 46-year-old Seattle man, was sentenced to two years in federal prison followed by three years of supervised release for his role in a drug trafficking organization that sold cocaine and fentanyl in Seattle homeless encampments and in the Chinatown International District. Su, who has been in custody since his arrest in August 2025, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance on July 2, 2026. U.S. District Judge Tana Lin imposed the sentence, telling Su at the hearing, “It is aggravating that you were selling significant amounts of cocaine and fentanyl to some of the most marginalized members of our community.”

Background Information

Su’s role in the organization was redistribution — the middle tier between wholesale supply and street-level sales. Investigators heard him on a wiretap discussing cocaine distribution and obtaining “samples” of fentanyl powder, and his first documented contact with law enforcement in the case came in October 2024, when he was stopped moments after making a drug purchase from the organization leader at a market on Beacon Hill in Seattle; the drugs and a firearm were seized from his car. Prosecutors’ sentencing memorandum painted the longer arc: between 2002 and 2025, Su had multiple contacts with law enforcement, including multiple arrests for assault, controlled substances violations, and carrying loaded firearms — arrests that were later dismissed or never charged, which the prosecutors wrote “failed to curtail Su’s criminal acts.”

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Pleaded guilty and sentenced. Sang Su admitted his role in a cocaine-and-fentanyl trafficking organization pushing into Seattle’s homeless encampments and International District, and received a two-year prison term plus three years of supervised release.

The plea admitted the conspiracy; the sentencing hearing set its consequences. Su had been in custody since August 2025, so the two-year term largely converts pretrial detention into served time, with the three-year supervised release tail extending court oversight well past his release. Prosecutors had asked for 30 months, citing the two decades of prior contacts and the pattern of interventions that ended without charges. Judge Lin’s aggravation finding — the customer base — is the fact that distinguishes Su’s file: the organization he redistributed for sold cocaine and fentanyl into homeless encampments and the International District, and prosecutors documented him as directly interacting with the group leader while also possessing a loaded firearm to protect the proceeds.

Public Reaction and Consequences

Acting U.S. Attorney Charles Neil Floyd framed the sentence within the Homeland Security Task Force mission: “Our goal with the Homeland Security Task Force is to remove dangerous criminals from our community – especially in neighborhoods that have been disproportionately victimized like the Chinatown International District. Whether you are a low-level distributor or a high-volume dealer, we will prosecute you. Mr. Su was a repeat offender selling drugs while armed and preying on the vulnerable population in the international district.” FBI Seattle Special Agent in Charge W. Mike Herrington called Su a redistributor who “contributed to the high volumes of deadly and addictive drugs” the organization poured into vulnerable communities, and DEA Seattle Special Agent in Charge Robert A. Saccone said Su’s role “helped extend the reach of these dangerous drugs and threatened public safety.”

The investigation was led by the FBI, Seattle Police Department, and Drug Enforcement Administration, with significant assistance from IRS Criminal Investigation, the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas program, Homeland Security Investigations, the Washington National Guard Counterdrug Program, the Oregon State Police, and the Clark County, Washington Sheriff’s Office. The case runs under the Homeland Security Task Force established by Executive Order 14159, and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Casey Conzatti and Brian Wynne.

Current Status

Su, 46, remains in custody — continuous since his August 2025 arrest — and will serve out the two-year term before starting three years of supervised release. The conviction on the conspiracy count is final at the sentencing stage, with the release documenting no appeal. The two-decade prior-contact record prosecutors placed before the court, and Judge Lin’s finding on the customer base, now sit alongside the conviction as the complete documented record. The supervised release term will carry standard court control — with re-imprisonment available for any violation — through roughly the end of the decade.

Impact on Their Career/Life

Su’s file documents the redistribution tier of the fentanyl economy: a wiretap catching him negotiating cocaine distribution and fentanyl samples, an October 2024 traffic stop catching him fresh from a purchase with a firearm in the car, and a guilty plea closing the arc two years later. The sentences he avoided in the 2002-2025 string of uncharged and dismissed arrests arrived consolidated into this one conviction, as the sentencing memorandum explicitly argued. At 46, two years in prison and three more under supervision consume the better part of the decade ahead, and the firearm-plus-proceedings record forecloses any lawful firearm possession going forward. For the Chinatown International District and the encampments the organization supplied, the sentence documents the task-force strategy of prosecuting the distribution chain at every tier — redistributors included.

Sources

• U.S. Attorney’s Office, Western District of Washington, “Homeland Security Task Force Investigation Leads to Two-Year Sentence for Distributor of Cocaine and Fentanyl,” November 2026. source