Body in duct tape leads to big stash

Published 10:36 pm Friday, November 23, 2007

MOUNTLAKE TERRACE — Hours after a man’s body was discovered along I-5 Wednesday, a SWAT team descended on a north Lynnwood home where police arrested two men and found several pounds of heroin, other drugs and cash.

Police on Friday wouldn’t say exactly what about the man’s body, which was stuffed in a sleeping bag with grey duct tape wrapped around the feet, led them to the Lynnwood home.

Detectives also are still looking into what connection, if any, the two arrested men at the drug house have to the death, said Mark Connor, assistant chief, Mountlake Terrace Police Department.

Both men were booked into the Snohomish County Jail early Thanksgiving Day for investigation of drug trafficking.

South Snohomish County SWAT team officers served a search warrant on the home Wednesday evening, Connor said. Mountlake Terrace police were joined by agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Inside the home, police found the heroin, cocaine and marijuana, and a large amount of cash, Connor said.

He declined to say exactly how much heroin and cash was seized.

One man, 63, was arrested inside, the second, 57, was arrested as he was leaving the home, Connor said.

Both have criminal histories, including time in federal prison for bank robberies, records show.

The investigations began Wednesday morning when state Department of Transportation workers discovered the man’s body at the base of a street lamp near the 220th Street SW offramp from I-5, Connor said.

Although the man, in his mid-40s, was found near where homeless people sometimes camp, he was clean-shaven and well-groomed. Police do not believe he was a transient.

By Friday, the man’s identity had not been confirmed and no notification had been made to relatives, Connor said.

The Snohomish County Medical Examiner was expected to perform an autopsy.

Detectives still are trying to determine how the man wound up 10 feet from a freeway offramp, Connor said.

“We haven’t confirmed how (the body) ended up there,” he said. “We’ll be working on that early next week.”

Anyone with information is asked to call Mountlake Terrace police at 425-670-8260 or 911.

Reporter Jackson Holtz: 425-339-3437 or jholtz@heraldnet.com.