(Image: SPD)
It isn’t clear how much the East Precinct has stepped up anti-drug dealing activities around Broadway and Cal Anderson Park or if Seattle Police Department is just putting more focus on the busts but the department has released details of another suspected street dealer arrested by patrol officers on Capitol Hill in recent weeks.
SPD says its officers were “conducting surveillance near Broadway and East Pike Street, when they identified a drug dealer who was approached by several buyers” early last Friday morning.
Police were able to take the suspected dealer into custody without incident near Pike and Boylston. SPD reports officers recovered 20g of suspected Xanax, 1.5g of Methamphetamine, 8.0g of Fentanyl, digital scales, packaging, and $683 cash were recovered from the suspect.
Police say the 32-year-old was also wanted on warrants for Possession of Stolen Vehicle, Theft and Escape, and Criminal Impersonation; and is on Department of Corrections supervision for drug violations.
SPD says the suspect has also been issued a “King County Superior Court Order for Stay Out of Drug Areas” order but it isn’t clear if that was specific to the Capitol Hill zone. CHS is following up.
After the arrest, the suspect was twice declined by King County Jail for medical reasons before being cleared “after several hours” and finally booked. SPD says the suspect was booked for investigation of Sale/Delivery of Drugs – Opium or Derivative, Sale/Delivery of Methamphetamine, Criminal Impersonation, Narcotics violation, Criminal Trespass, Criminal Attempt, Unlawful use of Weapons, and Arrest Warrants.
SPD says its narcotics detectives are now assigned to the case.
This is the second time a bust by patrol cops of a busy but lower level suspected street dealer on Capitol Hill has been touted in recent weeks. CHS reported here on a February 15th bust in Cal Anderson in which patrol officers reportedly spotted the suspect with “a large amount of narcotics and cash” in plain sight in the busy park and made the arrest.
“Patrol officers involved were proactively protecting the Seattle community and removing dangerous drugs from the streets, holding drug dealers accountable,” a brief on the arrest from East Precinct brass read.
The arrests come as new SPD Chief Shon Barnes says he is focused on recruitment and retention as he tries to stabilize the city’s police force. They also come amid calls for SPD and the city to do more to address public safety concerns around Pike and Broadway, Cal Anderson Park, and the newly created but so far barely utilized Capitol Hill Stay Out of Drug Area, one of a handful of zones around the city subject to new court-ordered exclusion policies that can bar repeat offenders from the neighborhood.
A spokesperson for SPD tells CHS the recent busts are part of routine work as the East Precinct emphasizes police presence in the challenged area around Pike and Broadway where 29-year-old Jonny Adamow was shot and killed in the final hours of 2024.
“Patrol Officers on-view crimes all the time and take appropriate action,” the spokesperson said about the latest bust on Broadway. “In this incident officers were doing an emphasis patrol in the area geared towards recurring drug activity in the area.”
Past East Precinct drug crackdowns have frequently involved increased efforts from federal authorities including the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration working with SPD but no joint operations have been announced here — yet.
Meanwhile, the drug crisis in the area continues to claim victims. Thursday morning, a Seattle Police team descended down the “tiers” of Freeway Park to help Seattle Fire recover the body of a man believed to have suffered “a fatal narcotic overdose” from an encampment just off Seneca. The Medical Examiner arrived to take custody of the body.
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Yes!! Keep arresting the dealers! Let’s take our neighborhood back from the junkies and criminals.
1000% YES!
2000% YES!
It is encouraging that the city is finally enforcing the law and getting dealers off the streets of Capitol Hill. I am so tired of Capitol Hill being a dumping ground and a place where this shit is tolerated and enabled. I am so over living in this toxic environment where drug dealers and addicts turn everything to shit. Throw them in jail and in mandatory treatment facilities and chase them out of Seattle. A crackdown is long overdue.
Despite constant drug dealing and usage including overdose deaths in the park since COVID these are the first two arrests I can remember. Amazing. Finally we are policing again.
The leftists talking non sense about people getting locked up for smoking a joint need to sit down and be quiet. These are dealers peddling the worst substances man has ever created, that turn people into zombies and ruin their life forever. They need to be locked up.
“the leftists”…really? “Sit down and be quiet”? really?
Your imagination and reality or two different things. “leftists” want crime free livin’ too yunno?
Lol they do not.
Thank you SPD!!
Not the job of CHS but, I’m not aware of hearing much about suppliers.
This street level stuff isn’t going to help much. This is a volume business.If this keeps someone from dying or self-destructing, good but, this kind of pressure is more show than anything. Dealers have overhead too. They don’t go for long when forced out, they go where the customers are, likely some of your neighbors. The average user is not who you think.
classic leftist tropes. nothing is ever good enough. isn’t it simply a public good to push this out of a park in our densest neighborhood?
He happens to be 100% correct Tiffany…
When you go after a dealer? You want to get the next biggest fish. So you interrogate the low level to get his dealers.
So why is it cops always take pictures of large shipments? To show off for political reasons.
But what do they say? They say “this will save 100’s of thousands of lives and puts a major dent in the current drug trade. Do they say that when they find a dude in a fold with a tooter in his mouth? Nope.
So yes. The real target is the big guy. Whomever el chapo is. El hefe. The big cheese.
Can we still work to get the babybels arrested and out of the parks or away from the front of shopping centers? I really don’t like living next to a to go, public facing open drug market, run by a havarti wedge at my local mini park. ..until they nab a big wheel of cougar gold, can we still go after the Kraft slices?
“They don’t go for long when forced out, they go where the customers are, likely some of your neighbors. The average user is not who you think.”
We’re talking about fentanyl that’s the issue. Meth is secondary. If any of my house neighbors are going fentanyl, then it won’t be long before they’re jobless, homeless and out on the street.
Arresting dealers is one way of getting them to reveal their sources, especially if the dealer is looking at long sentence in case they’re a repeat offender
Honestly, I prefer seeing some progress made on this compared to no progress made due to inaction and capitulating to the demands of the non-profits who were virtue signaling and pressuring housed residents to accept this as the new status quo.
i know we all watched the wire, but let’s be realistic. what is “for show” is clearing encampments and arresting addicts for public use. that truly does nothing and helps no one. no one is saying dealers are the only thing the police are doing, in fact it seems obvious that’s not the case since we are all pleasantly surprised they nabbed one. we constantly see obvious dealers with backpacks full of product, surrounded by a cloud of buyers. take away the dealer and there’s no reason for the buyers to be there. yes they’ll buy elsewhere – this is a different problem. it’s good to remind dealers that they’re doing something harmful and illegal, with actual jail time. we can talk about what to do about the addiction and homelessness crisis in another conversation.
Those of us who watched The Wire also watched Seattle turn into a real life Hamsterdam.
whole country is like this my friend. sad but true. seattle is not at all unique in this. every major city is in crisis mode over drugs and homelessness. you can argue that the seattle approach is better or worse sure, but the problem is not a seattle problem.
GOOD keep it up. Uphill battle …but focusing on even the small busts is better than not hearing about or seeing any action
Good. Zero point pulling random users off the street, they’ll just take up space in the court and jail for a couple days. Getting the dealers is one step closer to treating the disease instead of the symptoms.
Thank you. Keep it going. Many more illicit drug peddlers to catch and lock up I’m sure.
I’m glad he was “on Department of Corrections supervision for drug violations.” They seem to be supervising the heck out of him.
supervision differs depending on the individual but often means they have to check in regularly and follow certain requirements (drug test for instance). i don’t think he’s bringing his dealer backpack to the corrections officer meeting in a stolen car. be careful what you wish for – cops have enough methods to surveil us with already.
With his extensive criminal history (no surprise!), he needs to be charged (with a high bail), prosecuted, and to spend a long time in prison.