A 27-year-old Federal Way man who tried to sell 10,000 fentanyl pills to a police source was sentenced to 15 years in prison on April 6.

Fernando Lopez-Armenta was convicted in August of possession of fentanyl with intent to distribute and carrying a firearm in commission of a drug trafficking crime. He’s been in custody since his arrest on Aug. 4, 2021.

Fifteen years in prison, or 180 months, is the mandatory minimum sentence Lopez-Armenta could have received for his crimes, according to court documents. The prosecution asked for that amount of time, and the defense asked for 60 months, while acknowledging that the court had no choice but to impose the 180 months.

Defense attorneys argued at trial that the pills did not come from Lopez-Armenta, but were instead planted by the confidential source. At his sentencing, they pointed out that Lopez-Armenta had a difficult upbringing and argued that imposing lengthy sentences on folks like him will not necessarily stop the Mexican drug cartels, which prey on and recruit people in desperate poverty.

The day Lopez-Armenta was arrested, he had met the source in his car in Federal Way, intending to sell 10,000 fentanyl pills, prosecutors say, with another 4,000 stashed in the car.

Prosecutors say that when police moved to arrest him, Lopez-Armenta stepped out of the car and pointed a loaded pistol in the direction of officers and the confidential source. He put the gun down after a verbal order from an officer and was subsequently arrested.

According to prosecutors, Lopez-Armenta told officers that an associate had given him the police source’s number and told him to pick up the box of 10,000 pills and deliver them to the police source.

“The Court commends the arresting officers,” U.S. District Judge Coughenour said at the sentencing hearing, according to prosecutors. “The fact that Lopez-Armenta pointed a loaded gun at the officers, and they did not fire, shows tremendous restraint. He is lucky to be alive today.”

“The 10,000 fentanyl pills that Lopez-Armenta brought to this drug deal represented thousands of potential overdose deaths,” prosecutors wrote in court documents.

Lopez-Armenta intends to appeal the sentence handed to him by the court, according to a notice of appeal filed in his case. He is a Mexican national and will be deported at the end of his sentence, according to his defense attorneys.

In asking for leniency in his sentencing, Lopez-Armenta’s defense attorneys pointed to his traumatic upbringing, which included a father who was addicted to controlled substances and physically abusive to Lopez-Armenta’s mother.

He witnessed his three-year old sister die in a vehicle collision at an early age, attorneys said, and grew up in a neighborhood plagued by drug cartel activity — being the victim of a cartel-related shooting himself. After entering the U.S. looking for a better life, he struggled and eventually became addicted to cocaine, attorneys wrote.

Furthermore, Lopez-Armenta “was delivering on behalf of another individual who has not been arrested and charged in this case,” his attorneys wrote.

“The public undoubtedly needs protection from the fentanyl epidemic,” a defense attorney wrote. “However, imposing a lengthy sentence on the Defendant may not accomplish that goal. The Mexican cartels seem to be the main source of the problem and they operate with impunity. There is a great deal of poverty in Mexico and there seems to be an infinite number of poor people like the Defendant who are willing to work for the cartels.”

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is up to 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Someone overdosing on fentanyl may have small, “pinpoint” pupils, weak or non-existent breathing, and discolored, cold or clammy skin. They may be limp, choking or gurgling, or appear to be falling asleep or losing consciousness, according to the CDC.

If you see someone experiencing an overdose, you can do the following to help:

• Immediately call 911.

• Administer naloxone (aka Narcan), a live-saving medication which reverses the effects of an opioid overdose. Naloxone can be dispensed at pharmacies without a prescription, and some services provide it for free.

• Try to keep the person awake and breathing.

• Lay the person on their side to prevent choking.

• Stay with the person until emergency assistance arrives.