Mercer Island man who was arrested with drugs and an arsenal including Glock “switches” and 3D printed guns sentenced to prison

Seattle - A 27-year-old Mercer Island, Washington resident was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Seattle to six years in prison for his role in a drug trafficking scheme that involved a large amount of drugs, hundreds of thousands of dollars in illicit proceeds, and a stockpile of firearms, announced First Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles Neil Floyd. Michael Janisch pleaded guilty on January 20, 2026, to possession of controlled substances with intent to distribute and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. At the sentencing hearing U.S. District Judge John H. Chun said, "The involvement of firearms (with the drugs) compounds the risk to the community."

"This case demonstrates that even those from an advantaged background can be lured into the drug trade and the gun violence that goes with it," said First Assistant U.S. Attorney Neil Floyd. "This defendant used social media and his suburban rental house to prepare drug shipments that he mailed to drug customers across the country. Janisch engaged in his drug trafficking while armed with an arsenal of more than thirty weapons, Glock switches (used to convert Glock-style firearms to fire automatically), and scores of high-capacity magazines, and thousands of rounds of ammunition."

According to records filed in the case, Michael Janisch was arrested along with 13 other people in October 2024, following a yearslong investigation. Text messages obtained from Janisch's Snapchat account reflected Janisch and associate Bryce Hill discussing how much money each was making in the drug trade. Hill was arrested on an indictment out of the Western District of Pennsylvania the day after those communications, and is now serving a 35 year sentence for drug trafficking.

Despite being aware of that arrest, Janisch continued his drug dealing.

Various communications via Snapchat detail his trafficking in cocaine, MDMA and firearms. Even as his coconspirator Amir "Lethal" Osman was gunned down outside a drug house in the University District of Seattle on June 24, 2024, Janisch continued his drug trafficking. Janisch seemed comfortable with drug related violence. In Snapchat text messages he sought firearms from his drug contacts and even attempted to hire someone to conduct a "hit" on a former drug distributor in another state.

When Janisch was arrested on October 30, 2024, his home contained more than 4 kilos of cocaine, 60 pounds of psilocybin mushrooms and/or marijuana, as well as dealer amounts of MDMA, ketamine, and LSD. Stored near the drugs were 30 firearms: assault-type semiautomatic weapons, thousands of rounds of ammunition, firearm suppressors, and numerous Glock "switches," used to convert a semiautomatic Glock-style handgun into a machine pistol.

Defense counsel argued that Janisch had firearms because he was a "collector." Judge Chun countered, "I find these dangerous weapons alarming…. If he's just a collector, why did he need the thousands of rounds of ammunition?"

A room used as an office at the home appeared to have all the equipment for mailing drug packages across the country.

In asking for an eight-year sentence prosecutors wrote to the court, "Janisch engaged in the trafficking of MDMA, ketamine, LSD, psilocybin mushrooms, and marijuana on such a scale that it netted him hundreds of thousands of dollars in drug proceeds…. Janisch's scheme was more sophisticated than many as he largely took drug orders via social media, packaged the drugs for shipment at his house, and coopted the U.S. mail service, and other parcel services, to deliver his product. Plus, Janisch did not just traffic drugs. He did so while possessing an arsenal of semiautomatic rifles and pistols…"

Judge Chun ordered three years of supervised release to follow the prison term.

This investigation is part of the Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) initiative established by Executive Order 14159, Protecting the American People Against Invasion. The HSTF is a whole-of-government partnership dedicated to eliminating criminal cartels, foreign gangs, transnational criminal organizations, and human smuggling and trafficking rings operating in the United States and abroad. Through historic interagency collaboration, the HSTF directs the full might of United States law enforcement towards identifying, investigating, and prosecuting the full spectrum of crimes committed by these organizations, which have long fueled violence and instability within our borders. The HSTF further utilizes all available tools to prosecute and remove the most violent criminal aliens from the United States. HSTF Seattle comprises agents and officers from Homeland Security Investigations, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), The United States Marshals Service (USMS), the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigations (IRS-CI), the United States Secret Service (USSS), U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and the U.S. Coast Guard Investigative Service, with the prosecution being led by the United States Attorney's Office for the Western District of Washington.

This investigation was led by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), with significant participation by Seattle Police Department (SPD), Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), Washington State Patrol (WSP), FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Office of Field Operations, Customs and Border Protection Air and Marine Operations, U.S. Border Patrol, the King County Sheriff's Office, the Bellevue Police Department, U.S. Marshals Service (USMS), Everett Police Department, Renton Police Department, U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Washington State National Guard, Washington State Gambling Commission, Yakima County Law Enforcement Against Drugs (L.E.A.D) Narcotics and Gang Task Force, and Northwest High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA).

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Michelle Jensen and Joseph Silvio.