Officers find cache of guns, drugs in Ballard man’s home

Colleen West
·2 min read
92

A Ballard man is facing numerous charges after a cache of guns and drugs were found inside his home, charging documents say.

Over three months, a Seattle police detective and Department of Homeland Security agents investigated 51-year-old Robert John Catone for possibly distributing drugs including fentanyl, cocaine, crack, and methamphetamine.

Investigators said they used a confidential informant who bought methamphetamine and powered fentanyl from Catone on multiple occasions.

Catone was arrested on Sept. 22. During an interview with detectives and Homeland Security agents, Catone told detectives that they would find fentanyl, heroin, cocaine, crack and guns inside his home, according to Seattle Police Department documents.

“Robert told us where the drugs and guns would be located inside his residence, combinations to the safes, where we would find a handgun in one of his vehicles and where his storage unit was that contained additional firearms,” SPD probable cause documents said.

During a search, Homeland Security investigators found 14 guns, ammunition, heroin, powdered fentanyl, fentanyl pills, methamphetamine, crack cocaine and marijuana in various locations throughout Catone’s home, including the kitchen, a safe, a closet, a bedroom, and an office, documents show. A gun and body armor were also found in a storage unit.

Also recovered from the home was material used to wrap narcotics and $44,482 in cash.

Police said records checks on the guns showed that two of the handguns were stolen.

Because Catone has been convicted of three felonies — two for possession of a controlled substance with a prescription and one for attempting to elude police — he is not allowed to possess firearms.

On Monday, Catone was charged with three counts of violating the Uniform Controlled Substances Act and four counts of second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm.

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