Lewis County Sirens.com

Deputy Rick Van Wyck and Axel pose for a picture with methamphetamine. / Courtesy photo by JNET

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – For the third week in a row, local drug detectives seized a very large amount of methamphetamine from a vehicle when they conducted a traffic stop yesterday on Interstate 5 near Napavine.

Fifty pounds of the drug was pulled from a green Chevrolet truck with Oregon license plates, according to Centralia Police Department Cmdr. Pat Fitzgerald.

Fitzgerald described it as a continuing investigation and said the Joint Narcotics Enforcement Team was working with law enforcement from Oregon as well as members of Homeland Security Investigations.

The driver, 25-year-old Antonio D. Beltran-Villanueva from Portland Oregon, was arrested for drug trafficking and booked into the Lewis County Jail yesterday morning.

Fitzgerald said K-9 Axel and partner assisted and one pound of meth was discovered under the driver’s seat and then an additional 44 bundles were located in the box of the truck. Beltran-Villanueva did not have a valid driver’s license, according to Fitzgerald.

JNET is made up of officers from the Centralia Police Department, the Chehalis Police Department, the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office and the Washington state Department of Corrections.

Three men were arrested last Thursday when two vehicles met up with officers in the parking lot of Home Depot in Chehalis and the trunk of a car with California plates was found to contain just over 23 pounds of meth and a little more than two pounds of heroin.

The Thursday before that, the team confiscated 126 pounds of meth from the sleeping berth of a big rig hauling Starbuck’s products between California and Spokane after a traffic stop. Two men were arrested. They also located just under two and a half pounds of heroin, several thousand Oxycodone pills and a few grams of cocaine.

The various arrestees have been from California, Mexico, Vancouver, Washington and one had a temporary identification card out of Stone Park, Illinois.

Defendants, left to right, in green, Jose Luis Felix-Gonzalez, Juan Fernando Campos-Campos and Manuel Rojas-Valdez appear in Lewis County Superior Court

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – A 52-year-old man with a conviction for trafficking cocaine and another for illegal re-entry after deportation was charged today in Lewis County Superior Court with two others in connection with 25 pounds of drugs seized in the parking lot of Home Depot in Chehalis yesterday.

Jose Luis Felix-Gonzalez, who had a temporary identification card out of Stone Park, Illinois, when arrested, spoke through a Spanish interpreter in court this afternoon.

Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Paul Masiello asked he be held on $2 million bail.

Also charged was Juan Fernando Campos-Campos, 29, a construction worker with a wife and three children from Vancouver, Washington. Masiello said Campos-Campos is a Mexican citizen who may be living here illegally, and temporary defense attorney Rachael Tiller said he has resided at the same address for three and a half years.

The alleged driver of the Scion sports car in which detectives found the drugs is 22-year-old out of work carpenter, Manuel Rojas-Valdez, of Rialto, California. Rojas-Valdez has no felony criminal history and didn’t use the services of the interpreter.

The men are charged with possession of methamphetamine with intent to deliver and possession of heroin with intent to deliver. Both are class B felonies, typically with a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and/or a $25,000 fine.

Charging documents in the case describe how a detective with the Joint Narcotics Enforcement Team was contacted in recent days by a partner law enforcement agency regarding a large shipment of drugs coming to Lewis County. Yesterday, the detective was contacted again and told of a purple Nissan truck at the Wal-Mart parking lot.

Members of JNET converged on the parking lot, learned the truck was registered in Vancouver, Washington, saw three men standing around it and saw the white sports car they believed was involved.

The truck led the sports car to the Home Depot just to the north on the 1700 block of Northwest Louisiana Avenue, where they parked and a detective contacted them, Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Joel DeFazio wrote in charging documents.

Rojas-Valdez reportedly was advised of his rights and allowed the trunk of his car to be searched.

A large black trash bag contained bundles of drugs co-mingled with dryer sheets, according to DeFazio. A kilo-sized package was wrapped in carbon paper. The amount came to 23.3 pounds of methamphetamine and 2.35 pounds of heroin.

Once at the Lewis County Jail, the three were advised of their Miranda rights by Special Agent Rios and interviewed.

Felix-Gonzalez was implicated by the other two as the owner of the drugs and the one orchestrating their delivery, DeFazio wrote.

Felix-Gonzalez denied knowing or meeting the driver of the sports car and said he was at Home Depot because he was riding along with Campos-Campos in the truck.

Masiello said Felix-Gonzalez was convicted in October 2005 in North Carolina for trafficking cocaine and in August 2007 for illegal re-entry after deportation. Lewis County authorities believed he was using a false identity and name, according to DeFazio.

Judge James Lawler set bail for each of the suspects at $1 million. Felix-Gonzalez and Rojas-Valdez were assigned court-appointed lawyers.

Their arraignments are scheduled for Thursday.

It was just a week earlier when JNET arrested the driver of a truck hauling Starbucks products between California and Spokane, and his passenger, in Lewis County after finding 126 pounds of methamphetamine in their sleeping berth, along with 2.4 pounds of suspected heroin, several thousand Oxycodone pills and a few grams of cocaine.

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Seized bundles of methamphetamine get weighed. / Courtesy photo by Joint Narcotics Enforcement Team

Drugs confiscated from car on Thursday. / Courtesy photo by Joint Narcotics Enforcement Team

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Local drug detectives conducting surveillance on suspected drug traffickers in a parking lot on the 1700 block of Northwest Louisiana Avenue in Chehalis yesterday seized 23 pounds of methamphetamine and two and one-third pounds of heroin.

Three men were arrested and booked into the Lewis County Jail.

The investigation spanned from California, through Vancouver and into Chehalis, according to Centralia Police Department Cmdr. Pat Fitzgerald.

Fitzgerald said detectives made contact with three males in two separate vehicles, one of which was licensed in California.

“Due to their activities and the nature of the investigation, K-9 Axel, a narcotics detection dog, and the Lewis County Sheriff’s Special Enforcement Team also responded,” Fitzgerald stated.

The police dog “alerted” and a search of the California vehicle led to 23.3 pounds of Methamphetamine and 2.35 pounds of Heroin, Fitzgerald said.

Arrested during this investigation was Juan Fernando Campos-Campos 29, from Vancouver, Washington; Manuel Rojas-Valdez, 22 of Rialto, California; and 52-year-old Jose Luis Felix-Gonzalez of Stone Park, Illinois.

Assisting the Joint Narcotics Enforcement Team were the Chehalis Police Department and members of Homeland Security Investigations.

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Updated

BARN BURGLED

• A deputy was called about 8 a.m. yesterday for a burglary to a barn at the 1100 block of South Military Road in Winlock in which more than $3,200 worth of equipment was stolen sometime since last Wednesday. Stolen were four Stihl weed eaters and three Husqvarna chainsaws. One chainsaw was a 555 model with serial number of 151300427; the other two were 550 models with serial numbers of 153900670 and 132501052, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. There was no forced entry into the building, Chief Deputy Bruce Kimsey said.

• Centralia police were called about 3:45 p.m. yesterday to the 900 block of South Scheuber Road to take a report of an unknown person going through unlocked offices and stealing credit card and check books.

• An Apple computer was reported stolen from inside a residence on the 3000 block of Borst Avenue in Centralia about 2:45 p.m. yesterday, according to the Centralia Police Department.

VANDALISM

• Police were called to the 700 block of North Pearl Street in Centralia about 1:20 p.m. yesterday for graffiti spray painted on the side of a house.

ON THE ROAD, OFF THE ROAD

• A 23-year-old Packwood resident suffered a possible head injury when he lost control of his vehicle on a sweeping curve, went airborne and landed in the trees late yesterday afternoon at the 200 block of Skate Creek Road South in Packwood. The 1989 Suzuki passenger car sustained major damage, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. A deputy responding to the approximately 5 p.m. wreck issued an infraction for wheels off the roadway, according to the sheriff’s office. It appeared the driver was traveling too fast, Chief Deputy Bruce Kimsey said. The driver was transported to Morton General Hospital and kept overnight for observation, Kimsey said.

• Chehalis police were called at 4 p.m. yesterday after an episode near Main Street and Interstate 5 of road rage in which the two vehicles exited at the milepost 76 interchange and one driver walked up to the window of the other and threatened to assault him. The two then went their separate ways, according to the Chehalis Police Department.

AND MORE

• And, as usual, other incidents such as arrests for warrants, driving with suspended license; responses for alarm, dispute, trespassing, civil issue, hit and run, misdemeanor theft, disorderly person, suspicious circumstances … and more among 165 calls for local law enforcement and / or fire-emergency medical services in the 24-hour period ending about 7 a.m. today.

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Sheriff’s detectives are seeking the public’s help to determine what happened after a 46-year-old man was found dead in the 300 block of Mandy Road outside Toledo near an Interstate 5 overpass.

A 41-year-old Toledo woman called 911 just after noon on Saturday to say she had been looking for her boyfriend and found him dead there, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.

The I-5 overpass crosses over Mandy Road in South Lewis County.

The girlfriend said she had last seen him late Friday night into Saturday morning, according to the sheriff’s office.

An autopsy is pending, sheriff’s Chief Dusty Breen said today.

The sheriff’s office asks anyone with possible information on the incident to call the sheriff’s office at 360-748-9286 or Lewis County Communications at 360-740-1105.

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – A 21-year-old man is dead after being shot by his younger brother in Pe Ell, in a weekend incident a witness said was unintentional.

Sheriff’s detectives are investigating the shooting they were notified of at 8:55 a.m. on Saturday at a residence on the 500 block of Third Street, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.

In interviews, deputies were told the 20-year-old was handling a firearm when it discharged, striking the victim, according to the sheriff’s office. The 21-year-old succumbed to his injuries during transport by aid to the hospital, Chief Deputy Dusty Breen said.

The 911 caller was a 26-year-old Pe Ell woman who was visiting the 21-year-old and his 20-year-old brother, according to Breen.

The sheriff’s office did not release any names, but said the brothers are residents of Pe Ell.

Anyone with possible information on the incident is asked to call the sheriff’s office at 360-748-9286 or Lewis County Communications at 360-740-1105.

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Following the shutdown of Backpage.com, authorities in Washington state wanted to find out where individuals who wanted to promote prostitution online might go and it didn’t take them long to find out.

“Just Google ‘Backpage replacements’,” Washington State Patrol Lt. James Mjor said.

This week, undercover detectives, in partnership with the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office, did just that and in a one-day sting operation, arrested five men for second-degree promoting prostitution and five women for prostitution.

Officers had responded to online advertisements consistent with offers of sexual favors in exchange for money and had the targets meet them at a truck stop along Interstate 5 in Lewis County on Tuesday. Mjor declined to be more specific about the location, suggesting further stings might be conducted.

The goal was to rescue young girls caught up in the cycle of prostitution and human trafficking, according to the state patrol.

The five women who were contacted over a six-hour stretch were un-arrested as they appear to be victims of probable human trafficking, according to Mjor. Advocates from the Federal Bureau of Investigations were on scene to provide food, water, services and contact information for them.

“This is a positive collaborative effort to end the vicious cycle of human trafficking,” WSP Chief John R. Batiste stated in a press release. “This operation not only helps protect the victims of human trafficking but also safeguards our communities from criminal activity.”

Federal authorities seized the web site Backpage.com earlier this month. The site’s adult-oriented personal ads have been controversial, with allegations from Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson for example, that the business encouraged the use of language that would attract customers for illicit activity, promoted payment methods that made transactions untraceable, stripped metadata to impair law enforcement’s ability to find victims and even deleted “sting ads” posted by law enforcement.

One of the five men was also “un-arrested” as it appeared he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, in a vehicle, Mjor said.

Three of the men they let go, pending further investigation, he said. Additional arrests and criminal charges are possible.

One of the arrestees, a 37-year-old from Spanaway, was booked into the Lewis County Jail. David P. Campagnola was charged in Lewis County Superior Court yesterday with two felonies: second-degree promoting prostitution and possession of methamphetamine.

Charging papers in the case allege he was the driver of a vehicle which brought a female to a commissioned undercover operative at the truck stop, a female who allegedly agreed to charge $200 for “full sex”.

She said Campagnola was her friend. Campagnola said she was his wife.

He told officers when he was interviewed they were both meth addicts and homeless and she earned all the money by hustling, Lewis County Chief Deputy Criminal Prosecutor Brad Meagher wrote in charging documents.

Campagnola’s criminal history includes 13 felony convictions, including two strike offenses, that date back to the year 2000. He was just released from prison around March 15, according to Meagher.

He was ordered held without bail because he got mouthy in front of the judge, according to Meagher. His arraignment is scheduled for next week.

Lewis County Sheriff Rob Snaza said in a press release that Tuesday’s work was an example of the great working partnerships among law enforcement in the area.

“This operation allowed us the ability to reach out and offer support and resources to victims, and hold those who facilitate these crimes accountable for their actions,” Snaza stated.

Tuesday’s action was part of what’s dubbed “Operation Human Freight”, an effort that included also the Centralia Police Department, Lewis County’s Joint Narcotics Enforcement Team, the Lakewood Police Department, Homeland Security Investigations and Washington State Patrol’s Commercial Vehicle Division.

It was the second such effort this year. In March within an hour and a half in Fife, detectives made 14 arrests of which four were pimps, Mjor said.