Oxycontin News Blog

A man arrested Thursday night at a Mukilteo hotel is likely to face a felony charge.

A bag of OxyContin pills is just a sample of the 4,000 pills that Snohomish County sheriff's deputies seized during an arrest at a Mukilteo hotel Thursday.On Friday, deputies at their north precinct office in Marysville showed what they had recovered in the recent arrest - bags of prescription drugs, meth pipes, a baggie containing meth residue, lighters and batteries.

It's the pills deputies are most happy about. On the street, young people are more likely to experiment with prescription drugs rather than street drugs such as methamphetamine, they said.

"If it's a pill, and mom's taking it, or dad's taking it, or grandma is taking it, they'll try taking something like that," deputy A.J. Malaby said.

Deputies are investigating whether the recovered pills are linked to burglaries in Arlington, Bellevue and Redmond over the past month.

The man who was arrested already faced three pending drug charges in Snohomish County. He was convicted of malicious mischief in September 2002.

After getting a tip from a caller, deputies went to the Extended Stay America hotel on Mukilteo Boulevard about 9:30 p.m. Thursday. In a five-minute span, one deputy called the man's room about a dozen times from the lobby, while another deputy knocked on his door.

Five minutes later, the room door opened and the man stepped into the hallway. A deputy was waiting to arrest him.

He was allegedly carrying a backpack that contained more than 4,000 pills of 32 different types, including OxyContin, oxycodone, hydrocodone and methadone. Most of the drugs were painkillers.

Detective Bud McCurry said the man probably will be charged with a single felony count of possessing a controlled substance with intent to deliver.

"I think he got real nervous about who was knocking on his door and calling up to his room," McCurry said.

The man was the sixth person this week successfully targeted and arrested during Operation Gloves Off. Only one person targeted by the year-old program has ever managed to elude capture, deputies said.

Crime usually calms down during the weeklong program, because criminals are too busy running to commit more crimes, deputies said.

"It has a big impact," deputy J. Dunn said. "If we could do this all the time, it would have a huge impact.

This is cache, read story here