Vancouver gangster draws 10-year prison term

Calling a Vancouver gang member “a walking, talking crime wave,” a federal judge ordered him to spend the next 10 years in prison.

Herbert D. Zeno, 32, was sentenced Friday by U.S. District Judge Ronald B. Leighton in Tacoma.

Zeno bears tattoos signifying he is a member of the Bloods street gang, and was found to possess a handgun wrapped in a red Bloods bandanna, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office. He was convicted in November of being a felon in possession of a firearm. It was his fourth such weapons conviction, and his ninth felony conviction.

“You are a walking, talking crime wave,” Leighton told Zeno. “You are a bully and a predator.”

According to testimony presented at his trial, on the same day of his arrest on state charges, Zeno tried to get his girlfriend to hide a handgun he had left in his car. When police served a search warrant at his home and a relative’s home, the weapon was discovered hidden underneath a dresser.

After completing his 10-year prison term, he will be on supervised release for three years.

The case was investigated by the FBI’s Safe Streets Gang Task Force, which includes officers from the Vancouver Police Department and the Clark County Sheriff’s Office. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms assisted.