John McNeal makes his preliminary appearance in Lewis County Superior Court on Friday.
With the help of multiple confidential informants, the Lewis County Joint Narcotics Enforcement Team (JNET) was able to arrest a Chehalis man who was found to be in possession of nearly one pound of heroin.
Police also suspect that the heroin John McNeal, 35, allegedly sold back in August was responsible for a heroin overdose that killed a man.
McNeal was charged with two counts of delivery of a controlled substance-heroin, conspiracy to deliver a controlled substance-heroin, possession of a controlled substance with intent to manufacture or deliver-heroin and possession of a controlled substance-fentanyl on Friday.
Because McNeal has already been convicted of drug trafficking offenses before, the class B felonies he is charged with have double the max penalty — 20 years in prison — for each offense.
Deputy Prosecutor Brad Meagher firmly asked Judge James Lawler to set bail at $1 million, saying, “I don’t ask for that lightly.”
Meagher noted that McNeal is already out on bail from a case in Thurston County where police reportedly found him in possession of 170 grams of meth and 90 grams of heroin.
He also read off a slew of McNeal’s prior convictions that include two delivery of a controlled substance-methamphetamine convictions from 2012, a delivery of a controlled substance-heroin and a possession of a controlled substance with intent to manufacture or deliver-methamphetamine from 2011 among other non-drug related convictions.
Meagher added that while the Prosecutor’s Office can’t charge McNeal in connection to a man’s death due to a heroin overdose right now, JNET is “sure” that the “drugs came from Mr. McNeal.”
Lawler agreed with the state and set bail at $1 million.
The affidavit of probable cause gives the following account that led to McNeal’s five charges:
In July of 2020, McNeal reportedly sold heroin to a JNET informant who was under close supervision of law enforcement. The informant has since been declared unreliable and his contract was revoked, but his purchase of heroin from McNeal was recorded electronically and warranted the first count of delivery of a controlled substance-heroin.
Then on Aug. 3, following the death of a man from a heroin overdose, a JNET detective interviewed a second confidential source who stated he had received heroin from McNeal and subsequently delivered some of it to the man who then died of an overdose.
According to police, the confidential source was a mid-level dealer who purchased 1-2 ounces of heroin from McNeal every 28-36 hours and that they hadn’t purchased heroin from anybody else other than McNeal.
The confidential source also told police that following the man’s death, McNeal told a number of people to erase text message correspondence between them and to delete his contact information from their phones.
Then, between Sept. 1 and Oct. 8, a JNET detective contacted a third confidential source who was in possession of heroin and told police that he had purchased it from McNeal within the last day or two. This, the affidavit states, warranted the second count of delivery of a controlled substance charge-heroin.
Additionally, McNeal agreed to deliver the heroin to the third confidential source via a phone call which warranted a conspiracy to deliver a controlled substance-heroin charge.
Finally, on Oct. 7, McNeal arrived in Lewis County for what JNET suspected to be a drug deal. At around 11 p.m., detectives conducted a traffic stop on McNeal near the Interstate 5 off ramp on Harrison Avenue. A drug detection K-9 alerted McNeal’s vehicle and police were able to obtain a warrant to search his car. Police found nearly a pound of heroin packaged separately and fentanyl pills.
From this arrest, the Prosecutor’s Office charged McNeal with possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver-heroin and possession of a controlled substance-fentanyl.
McNeal is scheduled to be arraigned on Thursday.
