News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
Coulee Dam and Grand Coulee police talk with people outside a Fourth Street mobile home in Electric City last week as it is searched last week as part of an INET operation that also arrested two people in Grand Coulee. - Scott Hunter photo
Grant County's Interagency Narcotics Enforcement Team, aka INET, on Feb. 13 arrested two people during a drug trafficking investigation in the Grand Coulee area, the Grant County Sheriff's Office stated in a release last week.
Grand Coulee Police, assisted by Coulee Dam Police, pulled over a car containing 42-year-old Tony Gonzalez of Electric City and 36-year-old Latecia Perez of Moses Lake near Grand Coulee Avenue and SR-174.
With a search warrant, INET investigators said they found Perez had 833 fentanyl tablets (street value estimate $4,000), two ounces of fentanyl powder (street value estimate $1,000), nearly an ounce of crystal methamphetamine (street value estimate $200-$400), and about half an ounce heroin (street value estimate $250), plus a scale and several empty baggies commonly used in the drug trade to package smaller portions of drugs for sale.
Perez was lodged in the Grant County Jail for investigation of possession of fentanyl with intent to deliver, possession of meth with intent to deliver, and possession of heroin with intent to deliver.
Gonzalez, a six-time convicted felon, had in the car a semiautomatic pistol stolen from a Moscow, Idaho resident. He was lodged in the Grant County Jail for investigation of first-degree unlawful possession of a firearm and possession of a stolen firearm.
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine. Most of the precursor chemicals for illicitly manufactured fentanyl come from China and are synthesized into fentanyl in Mexico. Fentanyl is then smuggled across the border into the United States.
M30 pills, also known as "blues" due to their light blue color, are counterfeit oxycodone tablets that are often laced with fentanyl. Depending on where they are sold, M30s can go for $1-$5 per pill.
INET and local officers also searched a house in Electric City for Harold Bird, but did not find him there. Three other people in the house on 4th Street were questioned and released.
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