Russell S. Foster is brought into Lewis County Superior Court this afternoon to see a judge.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – Prosecutors today requested a $5,000 unsecured bond for the Chehalis woman whose property was searched yesterday morning following a visit by a SWAT team and an ongoing drug investigation.
Fifty-one-year-old Mary K. West, also known as Mary K. Craig, was charged today in Lewis County Superior Court with one count of possession of methamphetamine.
Police reported finding a pipe with residue and three ziplock baggies with an unspecified amount of meth in her bedroom, according to charging documents.
Mary K. West
Russell S. Foster, 46, who resides in a detached garage on the property on Southwest 10th Street was arrested as well and charged today with three counts of delivery of methamphetamine.
The Lewis County Regional SWAT Team and the Joint Narcotics Task Force yesterday morning served a search warrant and turned up items in Foster’s dwelling such as digital scales, numerous empty small baggies and what prosecutors described in charging documents as a receipt book with notations such as “T-shirt” and “Half T-shirt” which detectives say refer to “teeners” or 1.5 grams of meth.
They also seized a plastic bag containing approximately two “teeners,” according to the documents.
Foster allegedly sold meth to a confidential police informant back in early 2014 and then twice more sometime during the month that ended yesterday, according to the documents.
Chehalis Police Department Chief Glenn Schaffer said in a written statement yesterday the residence has been “an issue” for police and for its neighbors.
While yesterday’s news release reported the home was on the 100 block of Southwest 10th Street, it actually is on the next block east of that, in between South Market Boulevard and McFadden Street.
Foster and West were booked into the Lewis County Jail. At least one other person present was arrested on an outstanding warrant. The court documents relate Foster has a girlfriend who resided with him, but no mention has been made of the woman being arrested.
Police yesterday reported a stolen generator turned up during the search, from a December burglary on Jackson Highway.
West, who works part time at Burgerville, qualified for a court appointed lawyer. Her arraignment was scheduled for Feb. 11.
Police yesterday booked West for endangerment with controlled substance and subsequently added a potential charge of maintaining a dwelling for drug purposes, but those criminal charges were not filed today by the Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office.
Foster, who is unemployed and has prior criminal history about a decade old, was ordered held on $20,000 bail. Prosecutors had asked for $50,000. He is unemployed and likewise was given a court-appointed lawyer.
His arraignment is scheduled for Thursday.
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter
Soaper says:
Friday, February 5, 2016 at 3:45 am …Bottom line is drugs cost money and kids do not have access (nor interest) in the kind of money it takes to buy drugs. They’re more into candy bars & soda pop…which is probably worse for them.
That’s just not true on any level. Kids are stuck with their noses in all those electronic devices that play 24/7 videos and songs glorifying the drug culture as somehow a ticket to fame and glory.
The other sad truth is that young girls often are given drugs free of charge, with the payment due at a later date. Once into the drug culture, girls and women always have a way of paying for their dope. It’s the beginning of a very sad downward spiral.
@Soaper
If you think kids don’t want and don’t obtain drugs you are living in a fool’s paradise. They get money from a variety of ways. They steal if from parents, they have part time jobs and they “work it off”. People like you do drugs yourself and are part of the problem. Go crawl in a hole.
@still waiting for justice
Don’t worry NOBODY is selling drugs to “our children.” That is another lie that the public is fed by our law enforcement apparatus. If anybody would stop and think about how ridiculous that actually is for a minute they would realize it is a lie. “Our children” do not have money (nor the desire) to acquire drugs. I went to school here and it wasn’t until late in high school when I was even able to get pot if I wanted and even then it wasn’t easy. I realize that a few kids start earlier. For example, you read a few times a year about a middle schooler getting arrested for having a little bit of grass, but that is pretty much it. In fact, I’d be curious to know when the last time somebody in any of our schools was caught with something like heroin or meth. If it has even happened I’ll bet it would be no more than a couple times in the last 30 years. Bottom line is drugs cost money and kids do not have access (nor interest) in the kind of money it takes to buy drugs. They’re more into candy bars & soda pop…which is probably worse for them.
FYI: A “T” of meth weighs 1.75g and a “T” of heroin weighs 1.5g…..hahaha..!!!
That Guy says:
Wednesday, February 3, 2016 at 7:48 pm
Free Air,
The weapons Soaper saw were probably the M16A1 Colt Machine guns the SWAT team is issued.
It’s been quite a while, but when I took the citizens academy our range time was spent with these former military weapons that had been converted to semi auto for patrol use. No full auto. The only one automatic weapon I recall was a gun that shot the 9mm round and was suppressed. Not sure of the make or model, but it did not look anything like the M16/AR15 style rifles.
Thanks Sharyn. 😉
Censorship alive & well here on Sirens.
To A Looker and whom it may concern, LE realizes that for everyone you arrest their are more to take their place. But you fight the good fight, you shine light on the darkness every chance you get. If everyone did this, things may be different. What do you stand for? what will be your legacy? T.R said complaining about a problem without a soloution is called whining. What do you do to make the world around you better? I know from your comment that you have no LE experience nor have ever been involved in these missions so you wouldn’t know this point, sometimes their are kids in these houses going through a living hell! After these raids they may go else where and get another chance or at least a moment of reprieve! Is this a waste of tax dollars?
The Lewis county war on drugs has been a big erection builder for the officers since Bill Weister was Sheriff in the late 70s.
I concur with both responses. Well said posters.
maybe Soaper lost his or her meth in the bust? I don’t have a problem with the bust, but the first buy was in early 2014-so they didn’t bust them for almost 2 years-one would have to wonder just how much meth was sold to our children over the 2 years in order to be able to make this bust, and one has to wonder if it took almost 2 years, it probably was due to they were really small time dealers-all I have to say is why the hell does it take 2 years to make the bust-is this keystone investigators?
Soaper,
Read the story just below this one and see what JNET deals with. I hope you can understand why it’s better to be safe than sorry.
Free Air,
The weapons Soaper saw were probably the M16A1 Colt Machine guns the SWAT team is issued.
What would be even better is if a good crime reporter would expose the little lewis county war on drugs for what it is a big fraud with the public footing the bill. There are as many drugs or more available in lewis county now than when The Chronicle started its plague of meth series in the early 90s. Three million in drugs off the streets is a flat out lie like so many others weve been told. Sad.
SWAT teams and dope dogs are a tremendous waste of taxpayer money, considering the rate of return those investments give back to the taxpayers. Pigs love em. More jobs and extra money per hour for them, more taxes with a negative rate of return for us.
All of the ineffective task forces should be shitcanned and this is why. I don’t believe any government information on their successes because they are never correct. Figures lie and liars figure. It is more accurate to observe the world around you in various ways. Cops needed SWAT teams to fight crime and the war on drugs and they got them. Cops needed dope dogs to fight crime and the war on drugs and again, they got them. Incident command centers, excess military gear (including mortar launchers), 8 different task forces, the list is really quite long, but they got all of that too at taxpayer expense. One would think, that with all that money spent, crime would be greatly reduced. My personal observations tell me that theft here is at or near an all time high (regardless of pig statistics). The drug problem here, is at or near an all time high. The joint task forces are plainly ineffective and I’m tired of paying for them.
All of that money wasted and they constantly want more. The pigs have conned us (for decades) out of a fortune with a negative ROI. All you folks who believe them blindly, are nothing more than fools. One thing rednecks certainly don’t understand is this: For every dope dealer busted today, there are ten waiting to step into his shoes tomorrow. Most tweakers sell the shit at one time or another, even if it is only a dime.
The way we address our drug problem, is not and will not be adequately effective, EVER EVER EVER. Doesn’t the past 40 years of failure give you a clue? Until you folks come to that conclusion and a workable solution is reached, keep sending the taxman all that money, to again be wasted.
As an aside I wanted to add this for all those who think it is OK to abuse, murder and imprison sick people without trying to find a better way to deal with them: FUCK YOU! You’re disgusting.
Soaper,
I thought they only hit one house. What other houses (must be several by your use of the phrase “all over the neighborhood”) did they hit?
You must have been very close to the action to see if these were automatic weapons. Close enough to see if the weapons had an full auto or three round burst setting on them as opposed to the non military AR15 semi auto variety.
As far as the heavy gear coming out, I guess I’d rather see overwhelming force used with no shots fired as opposed to two cops having to fight it out. The fact that I’ve yet to read of a SWAT mission in Lewis County having an exchange of gunfire proves this method is proving to be the safest for both police and suspects.
Could it have been done with less people and only Geo Metros? Perhaps. The only other plus I can see is these minor busts go give the cops experience staging and moving in the heavy gear. I’d rather see that safely practiced now rather than trying to learn it on the way to a mass shooting or other very serious event.
Hell ya, it makes total sense to have a S.W.A.T. Team running all over the neighborhood with automatic weapons and kicking in doors for a bust that yielded…an eightball?!? By the way, a teener is NOT 1.5 g of meth. You’d think after getting 3 million dollars of drugs off the streets (I’d really like to see the numbers that back that up) that these guys would have the weight lingo down by now. Oh well, everybody likes to play army. It’s just too bad one of the helmets those guys wear is worth more than the drugs they found. Heck, the gas they used to get there in their multiple vehicles is worth more than the final haul of this investigation…for real.