SEATTLE — The Snohomish Regional Drug Task Force seized $1.5 million worth of heroin, fentanyl, methamphetamine and ethanol found in an abandoned Everett apartment.
“$1.5 million, that’s a lot,” said Octavio, a Casa Blanca resident.
The Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office said the property manager found the drugs during an eviction process at an abandoned apartment and called 911.
It came as a surprise for resident Octavio who was in his apartment on Oct. 19 when the seizure took place.
“I didn’t hear anything like that," said Octavio, who did not want to share his last name. "They steal cars a lot. They jack cars and open the cars and stuff like that, but nothing with drugs."
The sheer amount recovered is indicative of a large-scale drug trafficker according to the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office.
“We are scratching our heads trying to figure out why they would leave this amount of drugs in their apartment," said Jay Baines, who is the Snohomish County Task Force Commander. "Essentially there was a mattress, a change of clothes inside and all the drugs that we discovered."
Baines was initially called to assist Everett PD. In his 15 years as an officer, he said a call like this is rare. Normally it takes a huge investigation.
“We continue to do our job and we continue to do quality investigations and solid investigation, but it just shows that we’re not getting it all and that’s a large amount of drugs that could easily be on the street," Baines said. "I’m surprised it didn’t make it to the streets.”
Baines said this bust helped millions. It only takes one fentanyl pill to kill a person. There were 100,000 M-30 fentanyl pills, 2,500 grams of pure fentanyl powder, 3,000 grams of heroin, 989 grams of cocaine, over 21,000 grams of methamphetamine and 101 gallons of ethanol.
Now police are working with Homeland Security. People of interest have already been identified, he said.
“You know we’re going to try and figure it out, but we’ve pretty much handed it over to them," Baines said. "I think they’ve had some sort of investigation going with these individuals, so I think they’re going pick it up and run with it from here."
KING 5 reached out to the property manager of the apartment complex, but they declined to comment.
This is still an active investigation.