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Long arm of the law reaches into South Grant County
By Joyce Edie
for Mattawa Area News
Mattawa Area News/STPNS
September 25, 2007
Original Mattawa Area News/STPNS article: Long arm of the law reaches into South Grant County
MATTAWA, Washington (STPNS) -- The long arm of the law stretched into southern Grant County and beyond in a big way last week when 12 people were arrested on various drug related charges.

Late last Tuesday night, Aug. 28, a lot of people got a big surprise as over 60 law enforcement personnel from 11 agencies made a sweep through Mattawa, Desert Aire, Sunnyside, Kittitas County and the Crab Creek area netting drugs, cash, vehicles, and related items.

Seven search warrants were served with the aid of five squads made up of Grant County deputies, police officers from Quincy, Ephrata, Moses Lake, Othello, United States Fish & Wildlife, [color=red]Immigration & Customs Enforcement, the Washington State Patrol (K-9), Kittitas County (K-9), and Adams County Sheriff's Office.

Five residences in the Mattawa area yielded several pounds of finished and ready-to-be-packaged marijuana, 2-kilos (five pounds valued at $20,000) of cocaine, one-pound of methamphetamine (valued at $14,000), and more than $135,000 in cash.

In some of the residences' marijuana was found hanging and drying in children's bedrooms.

More than one of the units that was raided was taxpayer subsidizes low-income housing in Mattawa.

A helicopter unit from the United States Drug Enforcement Agency, along with a squad of DEA & Washington State Patrol drug enforcement agents, also assisted local law enforcement with the harvesting of more than 2,500 mature marijuana plants in the lower Crab Creek area east of Beverly.

Mature marijuana plants can bring an estimated $1,500 per plant at harvest, officials said.

Kittitas County deputies assisted in a cooperative effort with the Grant County INET investigation.

Deputies participated in the harvesting of more than 4,000 mature marijuana plants growing in five different "garden" spots in a wooded area northeast of the town of Kittitas and north of the Old Vantage Highway.

This growing operation was directly connected to the Grant County search warrants and arrests that were made in the Mattawa area, officials said.

A residence in Sunnyside, that had been connected with the marijuana growing operation in the Mattawa and Kittitas area, was raided and searched by Yakima County deputies on information from search warrants used in the Mattawa raids.

Six growing marijuana plants, nine plants hanging and drying, over three pounds of marijuana ready to be packaged, scales for weighing, $300 in cash, and two vehicles were seized that were connected to the drug operation. No one was home at the time of the raid so arrests have not been made, but are anticipated.

The arrests came after four months of surveillance by Grant County INET detectives. The group is made up of Moses Lake, Ephrata police, and Othello police, Washington State Patrol, and Grant County deputies, police said.

The adults, all from Mattawa, were arrested and booked on numerous charges related to possession, distribution, and manufacture of illegal drugs under the Uniform Controlled Substance Act, said Chief Criminal Deputy John Turley.