Sekiu man gets 12 years for drug offenses

Published 12:01 am Monday, May 20, 2013

PORT ANGELES — A 47-year-old Sekiu man has been sentenced to 12 years in federal prison for possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime and possession of Oxycodone with intent to distribute.

James G. “Chipper” Rode pled guilty to the charges last Nov. 9. He was sentenced Friday, May 10.

Officers with the Olympic Peninsula Narcotics Enforcement Team said they discovered 40 15-milligram Oxycodone pills and several firearms when serving a search warrant at Rode’s residence on state Highway 112 west of Sekiu in March 2012.

OPNET Supervisor Jason Viada said Rode sold Oxycodone to OPNET informants at least five times. Court papers said those sales amounted to $990.

Rode, a registered Level 3 sex offender, previously had been banned from Makah tribal lands because of prior drug-dealing activity, Viada said.

The case was investigated by Neah Bay police, OPNET, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, or ATF.

The case was moved to U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington in November.

Rode had 12 prior felony convictions.

As part of his guilty plea, Rode admitted that the firearms found in his bathroom heating vent were used to further his drug trafficking activity.

U.S. District Judge Ronald B. Leighton ordered Rode to serve five years of supervised released following his prison term.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney J. Tate London.

In another OPNET case, Expy Sanabria of Lakewood was charged in Clallam County Superior Court on Thursday with possession of methamphetamine with intent to deliver and possession of Oxycodone with intent to deliver.

Sanabria, 35, was arrested in Neah Bay by tribal police, Clallam County sheriff’s deputies and an OPNET investigator in April.