Feds: Cap Hill card room at center of drug operation

Seattle Times follows up with a doozy. Federal prosecutors say Pike/Pine had a much bigger problem than a speakeasy: Undercover gambling probe leads to cocaine, meth ring

It began three years ago as a probe into illegal, after-hours gambling dens, with an undercover Seattle cop posing as "Brian," a "trust-fund baby" who wanted nothing more than to party and make a quick buck, according to court documents.

But by the time police and federal agents swooped in with a series of busts on Wednesday and early Thursday, that undercover officer had managed to infiltrate and expose a drug ring that was dealing hundreds of thousands of dollars in cocaine and methamphetamine, prosecutors charge.

The Times reports that Richard W. Wilson operated the speakeasy "The Yard" in the building at 11th and E. Pike. Wilson was charged in U.S. District Court along with associate Marshall Reinsch and three Honduran men: Carlos Zavala-Bustillo, Cesar Canterero-Arteaga and Edwan Fletes.

Odd note from the King County Jail registry: Wilson's 'transfer of custody' listing shows his name as Richard Wayne Jones.