Atypical series of drug arrests besets Liberty Lake
A heroin arrest Sunday capped a long four days of unusual drug arrests that have kept police busy in Liberty Lake.
Officers made four arrests since Thursday, three of them related to heroin possession. The city usually sees heroin-related arrests only twice a year, said Police Chief Brian Asmus.
“That’s the strange part,” he said. “It’s not typical for us to see a couple in a row like this.”
The department’s arrest records usually feature a few marijuana or methamphetamine arrests each week, but harder drugs are rarely found, he said.
The first arrest came Thursday, when Karen Leestma called officers to her house at 17 N. Garry Road. She said her son was using drugs and was about to leave the house in a black 2000 GMC Sonoma, according to arrest reports.
On the way to the house, officers discovered David Leestma, 23, had an arrest warrant on animal cruelty charges.
According to reports, three Liberty Lake police officers entered the home and went into the basement, where they found David Leestma standing in a bathroom. After a struggle, officers arrested him and found dozens of drug-related items in the bathroom and a variety of prescription and illegal drugs, including Ecstasy, cocaine and heroin, as well as methadone, Xanax and hydrocodone, reports said.
Officers also found 133 syringes and several spoons, pipes and prescription receipts, police said.
David Leestma was booked into the Spokane County Jail and is awaiting several drug-related charges, according to the police reports.
On Saturday night, police checking on a truck in Harvard Park discovered methamphetamine paraphernalia, police said.
Police had arrested R. Daniel Abba on Feb. 27 in Harvard Park and found meth, according to police records. He was arrested on methamphetamine charges related to that incident in February, but he returned to the location Saturday night.
This time officers recognized him. Police searched his vehicle and found more meth, police said.
Abba was arrested again on suspicion of methamphetamine possession and booked into the Spokane County Jail, police said.
On Sunday, officers arrested two people, Sherrin Larson, 45, and Albert Angulo, 62, after finding heroin and drug supplies in the pair’s lavender Toyota 4-Runner, according to police records.
Officer Erin Lance remembered the SUV from a shoplifting incident at Safeway. She pulled over the pair near Alton’s Tires on Country Vista Boulevard and arrested them, later booking them into jail on heroin possession charges, police said.
The crime is unusual for Liberty Lake, but it is not an indicator of a bigger problem, Asmus said.
“It comes down to proactive police work and finding people that are hanging out in the isolated areas,” Asmus said. “We’re lucky enough to spot them, find them and hold them accountable for what they’re doing.”