A “mid- to low-level drug dealer” and low-level sex offender arrested in Centralia last week and charged for alleged failure to register as a sex offender is now facing drug charges.
Albert L. Brown, 50, was charged Wednesday, March 5, in Lewis County Superior Court with one count of possession of a controlled substance with intent to manufacture or deliver after law enforcement found three baggies of meth, packaging and scales inside Brown’s room at a residence in the 1000 block of Grand Avenue in Centralia on Feb. 27.
He was previously charged Friday, Feb. 28, with one count of failure to register as a sex offender. His bail in that case was set at $50,000. Bail for the new case was set Wednesday at $25,000, for a total $75,000 Brown would have to post to be released from custody.
Brown pleaded not guilty to both charges on Thursday, March 6. Trial is scheduled to begin April 7.
The Department of Corrections (DOC), supported by members of the Centralia Police Department, the Lewis County Sheriff's Office and the Joint Narcotics Enforcement Team (JNET), conducted compliance checks on multiple supervised individuals residing at a residence in the 1000 block of Grand Avenue in Centralia on Thursday, Feb. 27, according to a JNET news release.
During the compliance check, Brown, an active DOC-supervised person and level 1 sex offender, was located residing at the residence.
“Albert is known to JNET as a mid- to low-level drug dealer,” JNET said in a news release. Drugs, scales and packaging indicative of drug dealing were allegedly located in Brown’s room at the Grand Avenue residence, according to JNET.
JNET detectives took custody of the evidence and initiated a criminal case against Brown for unlawful possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver, according to JNET.
“A followup investigation revealed that Albert was in violation of his sex offender registration requirements and he was arrested by the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office for the sex offender registration violation,” JNET said in the news release.
Brown is registered as a transient in Lewis County, according to information released by the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.
His requirement to register as a sex offender stems from a 1992 conviction out of Oregon for first-degree sodomy. He was convicted of failure to register in Washington state in 1998 and 2004.
Lewis County Jail records indicate that Brown was booked into the jail at 1:20 p.m. on Feb. 27.
At the time of his arrest, Brown was on a 12-month probation stemming from a 2019 conviction in Lewis County for one count of possession of amphetamine or meth with intent to deliver, for which he was sentenced to 60 months and one day in prison for selling meth to an undercover JNET detective, according to court documents.
JNET is made up of detectives and agents from the Centralia and Chehalis police departments, the Washington state DOC and the Drug Enforcement Administration.
