Teen lives may have been saved from drug overdoses due to police responding to reports of illicit drugs at a local high school. The suspect was Anthony Valela who pleaded not guilty to possession with intent to distribute in federal court last week. He was allegedly caught with 20,000 fentanyl pills and 17 pounds of meth outside of Cleveland High School.
Valela was federally charged with possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute. He entered a plea of not guilty. Last week, two Bellevue School District students had to be revived with naloxone after suffering a suspected opioid overdose. Bellevue School District’s website says they do teach drug prevention in middle and high school health classes.
Washingtonians have dealt with tragic losses as a result of the high number of fake fentanyl pills. In the current case, Seattle police were called to Cleveland High School near Seattle’s Beacon Hill and Georgetown neighborhoods to a report that someone was partially parked on the sidewalk and sleeping in their car. When police arrived, they found Valela and a female passenger slumped over in a purple and blue color shift Mercedes SUV. The passenger side wheels of the car were on the curb in front of the high school.
Seeing what may have been a familiar scene, officers directed Valela to get out of the car. Officers reported noticing a glass pipe and a “crystalline substance” on the driver’s seat. When officers searched Valela a “crystalline substance” also fell out of his front pants pocket. The powdered crystals were later identified by the cops as methamphetamine.
Officers documented what they found. They inventoried all of the valuables in the vehicle before impounding it. They also found a gallon-sized bag of meth in the passenger side of the car. After securing the warrant, officers found more. They found 17 pounds of meth, 20,000 fentanyl pills, 458 grams of powdered fentanyl, 376 grams of cocaine and 30 grams of heroin in the back of Valela’s car. Cops also found $17,000 in cash, two cell phones, five digital scales and gold jewelry.
