Five children to remain in state care

MOUNT VERNON — A husband and wife who operated a Concrete drug home will likely be deported to Mexico after they pleaded guilty Thursday to five felony drug counts each in Skagit County Superior Court.

Margarita Castaneda-Estrada, 45, and Ramiro Guerrero-Trejo, 38, were arrested at their Ridgeway Court home in August. Five of the couple’s children, between the ages of 2 and 14, were taken into protective custody, where they will remain in the state’s care if their parents are deported.

“She really does care for her children very much,” said Castaneda-Estrada’s attorney, Adam Yanasak, during the Thursday court hearing. Being separated, “has really destroyed her.”

Superior Court documents say at least some of the children were present during drug deals and could easily access drugs and pipes kept in drawers around the home.

Investigators have pictures showing Castaneda-Estrada’s 16-year-old daughter loading marijuana plants into a “well-known drug user’s car,” and found drugs and paraphernalia in a 14-year-old’s bedroom, Deputy Skagit County Prosecutor Trisha Johnson has said in court.

The investigation was sparked when the Skagit County Sheriff’s Office began receiving complaints from neighbors last spring about noisy traffic around the clock and “some rough-looking elements of people that were coming and going on foot,” Will Reichardt, chief criminal deputy for the Sheriff’s Office, said after the arrests.

Reichardt serves as the commander of the Skagit County Inter-local Drug Enforcement Unit, which combines investigators from local, state and federal agencies for drug cases.

With the help of a confidential informant, the unit bought heroin three times from the Concrete couple, according to court documents. The informant told police the couple had been selling drugs for about two years.

The exact amount of drugs seized is not in court documents.

“The quantity of drugs that we bought and that we recovered was not a significant amount compared to other places,” Reichardt said. “But the impact that this place was having on the community was very significant.”

After entering guilty pleas to five felony heroin-delivery related charges each, Castaneda-Estrada and Guerrero-Trejo were each sentenced to four years in prison. After serving their time, they are expected to be sent back to Mexico, their attorneys said in court.

Guerrero-Trejo’s attorney, Jeri Bonkoski, said the family’s drug problem began when her client was injured working on a farm in Bellingham. He became addicted to pain medications, which escalated into hard drug use.

“He never thought it would get to this point,” Bonkoski said.