Jury convicts 'Ice Nightclub' owner of money laundering and drug conspiracy

SEATTLE – An Olympia man faces up to life in prison following his conviction by a federal jury Thursday of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, money laundering, conspiracy to possess firearms in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime and of being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Steven Asir Thomas, 40, was arrested by federal agents after an undercover investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and Seattle police uncovered his scheme to traffic drugs and use his Seattle “Ice Nightclub” to launder money earned through his drug operation.

According to court records and testimony during the six-day trial, Thomas, who had owned various nightclubs in the Seattle area, planned to open a new nightclub near the Seattle Space Needle called Ice Nightclub. The purpose of the club, Thomas claimed to an informant and undercover agents acting as drug dealers, would be to launder drug money and generate cash for additional drug purchases.

Court records detail Thomas’s use of bank accounts opened in the name of the Ice Nightclub to launder money he believed to be the proceeds of drug dealing. The basic scheme was to launder the drug money through the nightclub disguised as investments in the club. Thomas would then pay from nightclub accounts for sham services to an entity connected to the purported drug dealers.

On multiple occasions, law enforcement seized drugs that were either delivered or ordered by Thomas. In October 2013, Thomas setup a drug deal and traded methamphetamine for assault rifles. At trial, prosecutors said this demonstrated his savvy of the drug trade because Thomas knew trading guns for drugs carried higher profit margins in his favor. That same month, Thomas himself picked up a pound of methamphetamine from a source and then sold it to an undercover agent posing as a drug dealer in Portland, Oregon. About a week later, another two-pound load of methamphetamine was seized on a bus headed to Portland, the intended recipient being Thomas. Last March, Thomas arranged another one-pound sale in Portland of highly pure methamphetamine to an undercover agent.

A search of Thomas’s home last year turned up evidence of drug dealing, 14 cell phones, scales, currency bands, evidence of a previous marijuana grow operation and a loaded semi-automatic pistol. Thomas is prohibited from possessing guns due to a 2006 Arkansas felony drug conviction.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Washington is prosecuting the case.