Bonney Lake plays role in nationwide drug bust

Members of the Bonney Lake Police Department were involved June 9 in the nationwide bust that netted more than 2,200 individuals and more than 74.1 tons of illegal drugs.

Members of the Bonney Lake Police Department were involved June 9 in the nationwide bust that netted more than 2,200 individuals and more than 74.1 tons of illegal drugs.

Known as “Project Deliverance,” the 22-month investigation culminated when police arrested 23 people and seized more than 65 pounds of heroin from a house in Tacoma.

The arrests were part of a nationwide effort targeted at the infrastructure of Mexican drug trafficking organizations.

According to a press release citing records filed in the case, the organization used various runners working with a “dispatcher” to get drugs into the hands of customers. Drug customers from Lewis, Pierce, Kitsap, Thurston and Grays Harbor counties would call and order drugs. They would be given an intersection within a six square mile area of south Tacoma where they were to park. The dispatcher would take a description of the customer’s car.

At the time of the meet, the drug runner’s car would drive slowly past the customer car signaling the customer to follow; the cars would proceed into a residential neighborhood, alert to any surveillance and make the drug transaction. Hundreds of thousands of dollars, proceeds of the drug trade, were being shipped to Mexico in hidden compartments built into vehicles. During the past few weeks two cars were stopped and nearly $100,000 was seized.

In the course of the 13-month investigation, and during the police activity on the 9th, authorities seized more than 80 pounds of heroin, $400,000 in cash, four firearms and more than four pounds of methamphetamine.

On June 9 alone, more than $270,000 was seized.

Bonney Lake Police Chief Mike Mitchell said the department was involved in the bust in several ways. Mitchell said Bonney Lake investigators, as part of the Tahoma Narcotics Enforcement Task Force, participated in the investigation, while detectives from Bonney Lake were involved in the warrant searches. In addition, several members of the Bonney Lake Police Department are part of the Pierce County SWAT team.

Mitchell said the investigation, which encompassed 16 states and netted $5.8 million in U.S. currency, 2,951 pounds of marijuana, 112 kilograms of cocaine, 17 pounds of methamphetamine, 141 weapons and 85 vehicles nationwide will make Bonney Lake safer, despite the bust coming in Tacoma.

“It means that a major organization that supplies drugs has been taken down,” Mitchell said. “The crimes they commit spread out to places like Bonney Lake.”

Mitchell said the only concern now is there may be more burglaries at local pharmacies as addicts look for ways to get their fix, but the department was preparing for that.

Mitchell said the combined local and nationwide effort shows what can happen when law enforcement agencies work together for a common goal.

“It’s another way to show that everyone works together and when they work together big things for the community can happen,” he said.