A 37-year-old man living in a Des Moines hotel was sentenced Monday to six years in prison for drug and gun crimes, federal prosecutors announced.
Dennis Aguilar Huisa received the sentence in U.S. District Court in Seattle, along with three years of supervised release, according to First Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles Neil Floyd.
Huisa had been arrested three times over 15 months for possessing fentanyl pills and powder, methamphetamine, cocaine and a firearm.
He has been in custody since Nov. 1, 2024.
At the sentencing hearing, U.S. District Judge John C. Chun said fentanyl “is so dangerous and has destroyed so many lives…. He must have known that he was putting himself and his family at risk.”
Court records outline a series of encounters with police, beginning in August 2023.
In the early morning hours of Aug. 15, 2023, Puyallup police contacted Huisa on the side of a road after he said his car had overheated.
An officer noticed the car’s license plate did not match the type of vehicle listed in registration records.
As officers looked into whether the vehicle or plates were stolen, Huisa was removed from the car.
A second officer saw blue pills inside.
The car was impounded.
A search turned up about 1,000 fentanyl pills, suspected fentanyl powder and a scale with drug residue.
More than a year later, on Sept. 7, 2024, Puyallup police responded to a report of a 9-month-old infant who had stopped breathing.
Huisa and a woman met officers outside a box truck holding the child.
Officers began trying to help the baby breathe, and Central Pierce Fire and Rescue continued medical aid.
Investigators later found that Huisa had given the infant two doses of Narcan because he suspected the child had been exposed to fentanyl or other drugs.
With Huisa’s permission, officers searched the box truck and found about 115 blue fentanyl pills.
On Huisa, they found fentanyl powder and more than $16,000 in cash.
The infant was taken to Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital, where the child received additional doses of Narcan.
Blood tests showed the presence of fentanyl, amphetamine and oxycodone.
The child survived.
On Nov. 1, 2024, Auburn police served a search warrant at the Des Moines motel where Huisa had been living.
Officers found small packages of fentanyl powder packaged for sale in the hotel room.
Huisa was trying to flush some of the powder down a toilet when officers arrived, according to court records.
Police also found more fentanyl powder, methamphetamine and cocaine in other parts of the room.
In the box truck Huisa had been driving, officers found two kilograms of fentanyl powder and a Polymer 80 “ghost gun,” which is a firearm made without a serial number.
Huisa was charged by criminal complaint March 12, 2025, and indicted by a grand jury March 26, 2025.
On Nov. 12, 2025, he pleaded guilty to possession of controlled substances with intent to distribute, possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime and money laundering.
A financial investigation found that between July 2022 and September 2024, Huisa deposited about $370,000 in cash into his bank account.
Prosecutors said the money was the proceeds of drug dealing.
In court Monday, Huisa said he was “very ashamed and cannot forgive myself for what I have done to my daughter… I did not come here to deal drugs.”
Prosecutors had asked for an eight-and-a-half-year sentence, writing, “Huisa was contacted by law enforcement on three different occasions and continued to engage in his drug trafficking activities, to the detriment of his infant daughter. Huisa appeared to be undeterred following the overdose of his child and continued to engage in the distribution of controlled substances.”
After serving his sentence, Huisa will likely be deported to Honduras.
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