[1]Forrest E. Amos is facing a third strike charge related to alleged illegal large-scale sales of prescription pain meds from both inside and outside prison.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – A local man who has been on police radar since 2010, first for being involved in questionable medical marijuana, then for allegedly becoming a prolific dealer of Oxycodone and working as an informant at the same time, now stands accused by Centralia police of leading organized crime.
It’s a class A felony with a maximum penalty of life in prison.
Forrest E. Amos, 30, is in the Lewis County Jail, facing 26 varied criminal charges that encompass activities which date back to the spring of 2011 and authorities say continued in prison this year while he served a 12-month sentence he secured with a plea deal.
Centralia police’s Anti-Crime Team Sgt. Jim Shannon said he picked up Amos as he was released Monday from Stafford Creek Corrections Center in Aberdeen and took him into custody.
Yesterday, in Lewis County Superior Court, prosecutors requested the former Napavine area man be held on $1 million bail.
“To reflect the direct threat he poses,” Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Eric Eisenberg said. “Even behind bars, he wasn’t really controllable.”
Eisenberg also asked the judge to prohibit him access to a telephone while in the jail.
Defense attorney Bob Schroeter indicated that amount was excessive, calling the allegations apparently sour grapes from a falling out.
“The state used my client, trusted him,” Schroeter said. “And now apparently, they don’t feel that way anymore.”
Amos’s alleged drug trafficking organization from inside prison walls came to light in June [2] when Centralia police revealed an investigation that spanned four counties and caught up to some 20 individuals including a nurse practitioner named Sharol Chavez, whose medical records and other documents were seized in Tumwater and Aberdeen.
Chavez, who allegedly supplied thousands of Oxycodone pills to Amos, is under federal investigation, according to charging documents in his case.
At the time, police said intercepted prison phone conversations and surveillance of the ensuing drug deals led to various arrests, and they were nearing the end of their local investigation.
For Amos, who first went to prison for a violent drug robbery committed when he was 16, a conviction on the main charge of leading organized crime would be a third strike.
His arraignment is scheduled for tomorrow.
More to come.