A suspected drug trafficker accused of selling cocaine and methamphetamine across Burien, SeaTac and Kent was arrested Thursday after detectives served a search warrant and walked away with more than a pound and a half of narcotics, a handgun and hundreds of dollars in suspected drug proceeds. The suspect was booked into King County Jail following the operation.
According to the Burien Police Department, detectives with the King County Sheriff’s Office Precinct 4 Special Emphasis Team recovered 527 grams of methamphetamine, 260.7 grams of cocaine, a handgun and $800 in cash during the warrant service on Aug. 27. As reported by B-Town Blog, the seized cash and drugs matched the breakdown detectives disclosed following the raid. Burien does not run its own police department; the city instead contracts with the King County Sheriff’s Office for all law enforcement personnel and specialized units, per the City of Burien, which is why a countywide precinct team, rather than a local force, handled the case.
A Pattern of Precinct 4 Raids
This is far from the SET unit’s first high-volume bust in the area this year. In mid-February, the same detectives executed another major raid in Burien that turned up more than 12.5 pounds of cocaine, 1.12 pounds of methamphetamine, nearly 10,000 fentanyl pills and almost $180,000 in cash tied to a Mexico-based supplier, the station’s report notes. Just two months earlier, Precinct 4 SET closed out a multi-month investigation dubbed Operation Eastbound and Down, which ended in six arrests and the seizure of nearly 296 pounds of methamphetamine, 22 pounds of fentanyl powder and more than $229,000 in cash connected to a Sinaloa Cartel distribution network…