SEATTLE – Federal agents busted an East African drug-trafficking organization operating just steps from the University of Washington campus.

Investigators said the group is linked to violent incidents in the city and operates out of two houses in the University District, with students often going to one of those locations to buy drugs.

According to federal investigators from Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the takedown of another drug trafficking organization through Seattle-Tacoma International Airport led to the discovery of this operation operating near the UW campus and selling to students.

“This is what flows up and down the streets of Seattle every day based on this organization,” said Robert Hammer, HSI Special Agent in Charge. Federal agents were able to monitor the suspects’ electronic communications, leading them to drug houses in the University District where the organization operated.

“This organization was sophisticated,” said U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Washington, Tessa Gorman. “They used codes, switched phones, did counter-surveillance tactics and engaged in significant violence.”

Nearly 600 officers and 15 tactical teams from across the country were involved in the federal operation to dismantle the East African drug trafficking network on October 30. Federal agents seized 50 guns, thousands of rounds of ammunition, Glock switches and silencers, as well as fentanyl, cocaine and hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and jewelry.

Federal investigators will cross-check the weapons seized in this operation with other open investigations to see if these weapons were used in other crimes.

“The lead organization was shot outside a location in the University District called ‘The House,'” Gorman said. “A second location in the university district they called ‘The Office’ and that’s where they sold pills and it was right next to the university buildings and the dorms where the students live and study.”

Federal investigators said the group is also linked to violence across the city that has been documented on social media.

“The murders, the murders, the shootings were spread throughout the organization and their co-conspirators,” Hammer said. “The insanity of this drug trafficking organization has been on display, both from the various media reports that have existed over time and related to the violence in the city, but also on the social media accounts of the drug trafficking organization itself, where they – they took out there. to be proud of the violence they exuded in this city, frequently displaying guns, Glock switches, hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash flowing through the counting machines, running up and down the streets of Seattle, all the while displaying inside short vehicles. AK-47s with barrels, Glock switch pistols.”

More than a dozen people now face charges related to the trafficking organization, including one man, Khalil Ahmed, 26, of Kent, who also faces weapons charges related to a fatal shooting at a hookah lounge in August 2023 which left three dead and six people, including Ahmed, injured. Federal investigators said Ahmed also supplied weapons to members of that operation.

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Other individuals facing federal criminal charges related to this trafficking operation include:

• Anteneh Tesfaye, 39, of Edmonds
• Michael Janisch, 25, of Mercer Island
• Ali Kuyateh, 49, of Seattle
• Cooper Sherman, 27, of Seattle
• Alvin Whiteside, 51, of Federal Way
• Muhamed Ceesay, 27, of Lynnwood
• Lamin Saho, 38, of Everett
• Oche Poston, 31, of Everett
• Jaquan Means, 45, of Bellevue
• Dominque Sanders, 34, of Everett
• Patrick Smith, 27, of Edmonds
• Matthew Robinson, 37, of Everett
• Yohannes Wondimagegnehu, 35, of Seattle