Man faces drug charges after arrest in Kent by Seattle Police

A 45-year-old Mukilteo man faces charges of possession with intent to deliver heroin and methamphetamine after Seattle Police arrested him in downtown Kent.

Steven Eric Strauss also was charged with second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm since he is not allowed to a carry a gun as a convicted felon, according to charging papers filed April 1 by the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.

Strauss is scheduled to be arraigned April 11 at the King County Courthouse in Seattle. As of Monday, April 4, he remained in custody at the King County Correctional Facility in Seattle with bail set at $200,000.

“The defendant has a significant felony history and the quantities of controlled substances alleged makes the defendant a danger to the community,” wrote Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Michael McCullough in the charging documents.

Seattle Police pulled Strauss over in the 200 block of West Meeker Street on March 29 in Kent, according to charging papers. Officers arrested Strauss and had a search warrant for his 2009 BMW where they reportedly found a large quantity of drugs and cash.

Inside, police said they found 890 grams of methamphetamine, 863 grams of heroin, 577 grams of fentanyl pills, 14 grams of cocaine, two handguns and more than $20,000 in cash.

The total amount of narcotics and money recovered is consistent with a upper level drug trafficker, according to the police report.

Detectives were tipped off in January that Strauss might be selling drugs. They began to follow him in the greater King County area and on multiple occasions reportedly saw him meet with individuals and vehicles at all hours of the day to exchanges drugs for cash.

Most meetings took place in public parking lots and would involve Strauss allegedly getting into other vehicles or travel trailers or people getting into his vehicle, according to charging documents. A member of the Seattle Police Narcotics Unit said that type of behavior is consistent with illicit narcotics trafficking.

At about 1:38 p.m. March 29 in Kent, members of the Seattle Police Narcotics Unit, Community Response Group and SWAT unit took Strauss into custody without incident and had a search warrant already issued by a judge to look in his BMW.

A criminal history check by police showed Strauss as having 14 felony convictions, the most recent in 2016 for controlled substance possession with no prescription.