Tacoma Mall was the site of at least one drug deal that led to a 2022 federal smuggling, human trafficking and money laundering indictment for a 28-year-old California man. He was sentenced Thursday in U.S. District Court in Tacoma to more than five years in prison.

The sentence also includes four years of supervised release, the Department of Justice said in a press memo.

Investigators with the Department of Homeland Security determined that Andre Jackson had been in direct contact with a Mexican drug supply known as “Pacheco,” managing drug delivery from California to Washington state — specifically to distributors in Kitsap and Pierce counties. He also used social media to recruit drivers to smuggle non-citizens across the border, authorities discovered in the course of the drug investigation.

In August 2021, court documents revealed, Jackson headed to Tacoma Mall to hand-deliver 3500 fentanyl pills to an undercover law enforcement officer. He then drove 30 miles north to a Bremerton grocery store to drop off a smaller stash of pills to a co-defendant in the case.

Jackson also used multiple locations in Bremerton and Silverdale to wire proceeds of these drug sales back to his contacts in Mexico, investigators found. From August to October 2021, money flowed through Money Gram, CashApp and Western Union outposts in Kitsap and Pierce counties to the accounts of individuals living in Mexico.

In addition to the drug smuggling and illegal wire transfers, Jackson was also accused of facilitating illegal border crossings. His recruits would pick immigrants up in Mexico or near the border and transport them north, investigators determined after “a number” of the cars were pulled over and their drivers apprehended by law enforcement.

Jackson was indicted and arrested in November 2022. He pled guilty in February to conspiracy to distribute controlled substances and to commit money laundering, as well as conspiracy to transport “certain non-citizens for profit,” the release said.

The investigation also led to federal charges for three others: Jason Baker was sentenced to five years and one month in prison and Ashley Chico and John Irias-Mejia to 18 months.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Hobbs, who prosecuted the case for the Justice Department, told the court that Jackson helped distribute “significant quantities of fentanyl pills and likely other drugs.” Importantly, he added, “Jackson was not just a street dealer or simple courier. He was in direct contact with the DTO [drug-trafficking organization] leader in Mexico and played a knowing and significant role in transporting drugs from California to Washington, distributing the drugs in this State, and sending the proceeds back to Mexico.”

The judge in Tacoma, Chief U.S. District Judge David G. Estudillo, emphasized that “drug dealing is of course dangerous” and the human smuggling component meant that Jackson was “making money off of vulnerable people.”