Drug cops raid Spokane Valley daycare

Spokane County Sheriff’s detectives raided an unlicensed daycare in Spokane Valley this morning and arrested a 35-year-old woman who had been selling marijuana to several students, a spokesman said. Detectives raided the duplex at 7820 E. Buckeye Ave. just after 9 a.m. and arrested Tina M. Jones, 35, on the charges of manufacturing a controlled substance and possession of marijuana with intent to deliver, sheriff’s spokesman Deputy Craig Chamberlin said. “The investigation has been going on for about a year,” Chamberlin said. The case started through the work of Deputy Ed Cashman, the school resource officer at West Valley High School, he said. “Whenever he found kids with pot, they told him they were buying it here,” Chamberlin said, referring to Jones’ residence, which is about a half mile from the school. “We were able to get a confidential informant and confirm she was running an unlicensed day care,” he said. She was caring for anywhere between three to seven children in the same home that detectives seized 58 marijuana plants. Three children were in the home at the time of the raid. “We have a (Child Protective Services) worker on scene with the three kids and the parents have been notified,” he said. All of the children were picked up at the residence by their parents. “Jones rationale for selling the marijuana to the students was to keep them away from ‘worse’ drugs,” Chamberlin said. “As far as the marijuana grow, Jones said she was under the assumption marijuana was going to be legalized in the near future so she was getting a head start for her personal usage.”