{"id":2231,"date":"2010-09-29T14:48:49","date_gmt":"2010-09-29T21:48:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lewiscountysirens.com\/?p=2231"},"modified":"2010-09-29T15:33:17","modified_gmt":"2010-09-29T22:33:17","slug":"centralia-auto-business-arrest-followed-discovery-of-almost-10-pounds-of-cocaine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/?p=2231","title":{"rendered":"Centralia auto business arrest followed discovery of almost 10 pounds of cocaine"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Sharyn\u00a0 L. Decker
\nLewis County Sirens news reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n

The owner of a Centralia property whose Harrison Avenue premises was visited two weeks ago by federal agents has been charged by indictment in a drug case after he was found to have nearly 10 pounds of cocaine hidden in his attic.<\/p>\n

Donato Valle Vega was arrested on Sept. 17, the day after law enforcement officers descended on Emmanuel Auto Sales.<\/p>\n

He is accused of possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, according to the indictment which was filed last Thursday in U.S. District Court.<\/p>\n

Valle Vega remains in federal custody, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. His arraignment is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. on Friday in U.S. District Court in Tacoma, according to spokesperson Emily Langlie.<\/p>\n

The complaint in the case describes four individually wrapped kilogram-sized blocks of powder cocaine retrieved from the attic of the building on Harrison Avenue. A kilogram is roughly equivalent to 2.2 pounds.<\/p>\n

While the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration didn’t put a street value on the find, the price of one kilo in Southwest Washington could range from $22,000 to $26,000, according to DEA Special Agent Jodie Underwood.<\/p>\n

County records show the property is owned by Donato and Irma Valle-Vega. A woman at the business the day after the arrest declined to comment.<\/p>\n

Centralia police issued a news release the weekend following the arrest noting they assisted. The DEA referred inquiries to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.<\/p>\n

According to the complaint filed last week in U.S. District Court, an FBI agent and a DEA agent met with Valle Vega on Sept. 2 at Fort Borst Park in Centralia.<\/p>\n

They allege he admitted hiding drugs at his business and then he accompanied the two to Emmanuel Auto Sales where he showed them the bundles.<\/p>\n

The document goes to say: Valle Vega told the FBI agent he got five and half kilos in July, but had already distributed one and a half kilograms to a customer in August.<\/p>\n

The document doesn’t explain why he was not arrested until a little more than two weeks later.<\/p>\n

Langlie of the U.S. Attorney’s Office says it’s not something they would comment on, other than noting investigations involve many steps.<\/p>\n

The motion for a detention order cites a serious risk the defendant will flee, and the safety of any other person and the community. The crime has a maximum sentence of ten years or more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Sharyn\u00a0 L. Decker Lewis County Sirens news reporter The owner of a Centralia property whose Harrison Avenue premises was visited two weeks ago by federal agents has been charged by indictment in a drug case after he was found to have nearly 10 pounds of cocaine hidden in his attic. Donato Valle Vega was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10],"class_list":["post-2231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-top-story","tag-by-sharyn-l-decker","tag-news-reporter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2231"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2235,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2231\/revisions\/2235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}