SEATTLE — A man caught with large amounts of drugs and guns, including an anti-tank weapon, was sentenced earlier this summer to a decade in federal prison.
Aaron Knapp, 41, was the target of separate investigations by the Snohomish Regional Drug and Gang Task Force and the Everett Police Department. Knapp was indicted late last year on multiple drugs and weapons charges.
Knapp was long suspected of dealing large quantities of drugs in Snohomish County and using weapons to further his narcotics trafficking.
He pleaded guilty to two crimes earlier this year. As part of the plea agreement both sides recommended a 10-year sentence.
Knapp was arrested by police “with dealer-quantity amounts of methamphetamine and heroin on three different occasions in a 10 month period. These interactions with law enforcement didn’t deter him,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Catherine Crisham wrote.
Knapp has been under investigation for pedaling drugs in Snohomish County since at least 2013. Detectives were watching Knapp’s Lynnwood house after reportedly hearing from several sources that he was selling meth and heroin out of the home. Sources reported that Knapp was buying and selling guns, too.
He was arrested in Aug. 2013 and found with drugs. Police arrested him again in December of that year. Detectives found a stolen pistol inside his pants. Knapp claimed he didn’t know the gun was there. They searched his house and found heroin, meth, money and more guns.
Knapp was out of custody pending trial on those two separate cases when he was arrested in June 2014 outside an Everett storage unit.
He’d arranged to sell drugs to an informant who was working with police. A drug-sniffing dog nosed out narcotics in his car and storage locker. Investigators found a combined pound of meth and heroin, $47,000 in cash and three guns. Detectives searched his storage locker and found more than a dozen firearms, including a Finnish anti-tank gun dating back to World War II. About half the guns were stolen. Knapp told detectives he was an unemployed student collecting money from a state Labor and Industries injury claim. At the time he was listed as the owner of The Filthy Technician, an automotive repair business.
Knapp had taken “steps to live a productive and crime-free life upon being released from prison,” Crisham wrote. “Unfortunately, the defendant has continued to struggle with his drug addictions. He nevertheless bears ultimately responsibility for his decisions and the criminal actions he has engaged in as an adult.”
Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463; hefley@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @dianahefley.
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