In late August, Seattle's music and club scene was buzzing with rumors of a large cocaine bust ["Rock Cocaine," Amy Jenniges, August 26]. Dealers who reportedly frequented bars and clubs on Capitol Hill and downtown were suddenly laying low, cutting off contact with buyers. Apparently, the Seattle Police had arrested their cocaine supplier, and the dealers were playing it safe.

Indeed, on Tuesday, August 17--the rumored date of the bust--the police did a $300 "controlled buy" involving a 33-year-old Seattle man. The Stranger has learned that one week later, police arrested the suspect, seized cocaine, plus the cell phone and cash involved in the earlier buy.

The man was arrested in Rainier Beach, and booked under investigation of drug charges. The police confiscated more than a kilo--that's approximately 2.2 pounds--of cocaine. "That's a lot," remarked police spokesperson Sean Whitcomb. The drugs have a street value of around $109,000 according to the police report. Police say it's enough coke to potentially earn the man federal drug charges, though so far he hasn't been charged: The case was handed to the King County Prosecutor's Office on August 25, and Dan Donahoe, spokesperson for the prosecutor's office, says a decision on which type of charges would come later.

It's not clear if the man arrested had a direct connection to the Seattle music and club scene--the narcotics detective overseeing the case, Sgt. Eric Barden, was unavailable for comment by press time, and the police report was thin on details about the man arrested (The Stranger is not naming him, since he hasn't been charged). But the before the arrest, some speculated that the dealers' supplier--someone who didn't go to the bars and clubs himself--had been busted. The amount of cocaine seized could indicate that the man arrested was supplying dealers. One of the four counts he was booked on was possession with intent to distribute cocaine.

The man was arrested at a house on South Kenyon Street, just a block off Rainier Avenue South. At 6:20 a.m., after detectives saw the suspect drive up to the house, a police SWAT unit served a narcotics search warrant on the home and the vehicle, and found the cocaine under the car's driver's seat. According to the report, police also found $823 cash in the suspect's bedroom, including $300 that had been part of the August 17 drug buy. The suspect's cell phone, the report says, was the phone "used to facilitate the deliveries." The suspect, however, told police "he had borrowed the kilo of cocaine from somebody he didn't know to get some extra money." He also told police he "didn't know who gave it to him, he didn't know [that person's] phone number, what he drove, where he lived, or how this person got his phone number, or why he gave him the kilo to hold." The suspect was booked into King County Jail, and posted $12,500 bail the next day, according to jail records.

amy@thestranger.com