Lewis County Sirens.com

Two more suspects – including a Toledo man – are expected to be transferred into federal custody today from a local group authorities call a major methamphetamine-trafficking organization in Southwest Washington.

Anthony Wayne Reisbeck, 43, of Toledo and Randy Scott Chalupa, 47, of Longview, will move into the federal court system today; as did Erica Deann Lewis, 34, of Toledo, after her Friday arrest in Toledo, according to detective Sgt. Kevin Tate of the Cowlitz-Wahkiakum Narcotics Task Force.

The task force is looking at numerous Lewis and Cowlitz County residents as they begin their “second wave” of seeking federal prosecutions for previously locally charged individuals, Tate said.

Lewis was served a no-bail federal warrant and transferred to Tacoma for arraignment in U.S. District Court, according to Tate.

“This is an ongoing investigation, much more significant than it might appear to the public at this point,” Tate said this morning.

The task force alleges the network has primarily been purchasing from Mexican drug traffickers, and also trying to manufacture meth on a small scale.

The so-called first wave came from arrests in late February and early March, he said. Detectives seized two cars, one registered to Lewis, and found more than a pound of methamphetamine, he said.

Lewis was later arrested near Gee Cee’s truck stop. Her home and two others in Lewis County were searched on March 25. She was arrested Friday driving near her home, Tate said.

Lewis County Sheriff’s Office detectives have assisted, he said. The task force is made up of law enforcement officers from the Cowlitz County Sheriff’s Office, Longview Police Department, Kelso Police Department, the Washington State Patrol and as available from Wahkiakum County.

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This news story has been corrected since it was first posted. Randy Scott Chapula’s first name was inadvertently omitted.

The search for the body of the missing climber on Mount Rainier will hopefully resume later this week, a park spokesperson said this morning.

Mark Wedeven, 27, of Olympia, went missing after an avalanche early Saturday morning on the Ingraham Glacier. He was one of 11 people overtaken by the snow. The others survived, but Wedeven is presumed dead, according to Mount Rainier National Park spokesperson Kevin Bacher.

Ironically, the worst ever climbing accident in U.S. history was on Mount Rainier, on the same glacier and on the same route, Bacher said.

It happened almost 29 years ago, on June 21, 1981. It was also a “slab” avalanche, according to Bacher.

“In that case, 11 people were killed by the avalanche, so the similarities in this case were spooky,” he said.

This particular route is an off-shoot of one of the two most popular climbs on Mount Rainier. Climbers depart from Paradise for the hike, Bacher said.

A limited search took place yesterday for Wedeven, Bacher said.

Park rangers stationed at Camp Muir continue to be hampered in their ability to search due to dangerous avalanche conditions on the upper mountain, Bacher said.

The search will resume as soon as it is safe, Bacher said.

An 11-year-old boy on a bicycle was struck by a car on Harrison Avenue in Centralia yesterday.

Police and aid called just after 5 p.m. said the Centralia resident sustained cuts and a leg injury. He was taken to Providence Centralia Hospital.

Centralia Police Department Sgt. Carl Buster said the child came across the busy arterial from the south side near the Panda Inn restaurant and was hit by a westbound Mitsubishi Lancer. He was accompanied by three other young bicyclists, Buster said.

One driver stopped, but the 18-year-old driver of the Mitsubishi didn’t even have a chance to see the boy, Buster said. She was not cited, he said.

Traffic was clogged up on Harrison Avenue in Centralia yesterday evening after a three-vehicle collision, but no serious injuries were reported.

Troopers and aid were called about 5:20 p.m. to the wreck on the 2800 block of Harrison Avenue, about one mile north of the city limits.

The Washington State Patrol blamed the crash on inattention, when the 17-year-old driver of a 1990 Toyota Camry was distracted by something outside his car and rear-ended a 2009 Kia Optima, pushing that car into a Ford 450 flatbed truck.

A northbound lane was closed for about an hour and motorists were rerouted onto a side street, according to the Riverside Fire Authority.

The driver of the Kia, Rebecca L. Freeman, 41, was taken by ambulance to Providence Centralia Hospital with possible neck and back injuries, according to the state patrol. The Rochester woman was treated and has been released, the hospital said this morning.

The two cars were described as totaled and the truck sustained an estimated $1000 damage, according to the responding trooper.

Franklin C. Swenson, 17, of Rochester, was to be cited for second-degree negligent driving, according to the state patrol.

Centralia police have recovered virtually truckloads of stolen goods as they searched a home and an undisclosed location following last week’s surprise find by one of its own officers of property stolen from his residence.

Centralia Police Department detective Sgt. Pat Fitzgerald said today he didn’t have an estimate of the monetary value, but going through the items and attempting to return them to their owners has been time consuming.

“We’re talking lawn mowers, pressure washers, just huge amounts of tools,” Fitzgerald said. “Lawn care equipment, weed eaters, imagine what you would keep in your garage.”

Fitzgerald said he took phone calls all day Wednesday and Thursday from members of the public wondering about their own missing items after the find was publicized early last week.

Officers didn’t actually load up all the loot into trucks, but arranged for theft victims to come and pick it up.

Police have searched the house on the 700 block of Reynolds Avenue three times now, Fitzgerald said.

It was kind of a fluke that one of the men police believe is connected with the case was arrested on Thursday afternoon, for possession of several different kinds of drugs, according to Fitzgerald.

Fitzgerald said he was on his way to court to get one of the search warrants signed, when he spotted 49-year-old Daniel J. Miller Sr. driving in the south end of town. Miller was booked and then charged Friday for possession of methamphetamine, oxycodone, methadone and hydrocodone.

The searches began after a Centralia police officer went to the Reynolds’ Avenue residence with a man who said he was going to retrieve a vehicle registration for the officer to prove a car he was trying to start with a screwdriver belonged to him. While standing at the door, the officer reportedly saw several items he recognized as having been stolen from his garage in Chehalis a few days earlier, according to police. Fitzgerald declined to name the officer at the officer’s request.

Much of the found property has been confirmed to have been taken from homes, garages, sheds and storage units in Centralia and Chehalis over the past few months, police reported.

A man and woman escaped safely when a Salkum area home caught fire early yesterday morning thanks to a working smoke alarm, according to Lewis County Fire District 8.

Four fire departments responded to the pre- 7 a .m. call at the single story house off of Shanklin Road, Assistant Fire Chief Don Taylor said this morning.

“When we arrived we had a pretty good fire through the roof which was knocked down pretty quickly,” Taylor said.

The blaze destroyed a large portion of the roof and left heavy smoke damage inside, he said.

A fire investigator was looking into the specific cause.