A heroin investigation earlier this week led SPD narcotics detectives to arrest several suspected dealers in their Tacoma apartment, and seize a collection of knives and guns–including an automatic weapon–from a neighboring unit.
Early Monday, detectives served a warrant at the apartment building–a converted home in the 600 block of North J Street–and arrested three residents in a lower unit, where police had purchased heroin from the apartment on several occasions.
After arresting a 62-year-old man, his brother and a female resident, detectives received information that a tenant in another apartment was also apparently involved in heroin dealing.
Detectives contacted a woman at the second apartment and, after being let inside, found a collection of knives, brass knuckles and three handguns–including a fully-automatic 9mm pistol–and 6 grams of heroin.
The woman and 62-year-old man arrested in the first apartment were booked into the Pierce County Jail for narcotics delivery, while the third man was booked for a warrant out of Oregon. The man, who was wanted in Oregon in connection with heroin trafficking, told police he’d recently begun working as a counselor at a Washington hospital.
Police also arrested a man at the second apartment, who is a fugitive from the Washington State Department of Corrections. He was turned over to DOC.