BAY CENTER — The Pacific County Joint Drug Task Force arrested Blake M. Walten, 39, on May 26 in an operation involving multiple agencies. He was stopped on U.S. Highway 101 near Bay Center by officers in marked patrol vehicles.

Walten was on the task force’s radar for well over a year. According to court records, confidential informants began naming Walten as a player in the north county drug scene, particularly in Bay Center, in March 2024 and he was mentioned by several others through March 2025 when officers homed in on his alleged trafficking.

“When asked how these friends communicate with Walten, they advised they call Walten but they themselves don’t know the phone number,” a task officer stated in court documents. “They also stated that they know that Walten will go somewhere up by the Seattle-Tacoma area to reup and buy controlled substances to bring back down and sell for profit.”

Another informant told officers that “Walten is selling big dope.”

“They continued on and said Walten usually gets a couple of kilos [4.4 pounds] every time he goes and reups in the Tacoma area,” a task force officer stated. “Which is usually every couple of weeks. They also advised that Walten goes to the Astoria area to [sell] it there as well…”

Due to the dangerous work the task force conducts, exact details of how the task force tracked Walten are being withheld, but he was tracked to both the Tacoma and Warrenton areas multiple times.

On his most recent visit to Tacoma, the task force seized the opportunity to arrest him as he arrived back in the area. Officers stopped him with a search warrant in hand.

Officers reportedly discovered a lockbox on the floorboard of the passenger side of the vehicle and were unable to get the lockbox’s code from Walten.

“[A task force officer] then used a knife to open the zipper of the container,” a task force officer stated in court documents. “Within the container was a baggie with approximately 11 chunks of off-white chalky substances that through my training and law enforcement experience I believed to be fentanyl powder.”

The task force officer said they later weighed the bagged substance, which came in at 257.96 grams [0.57 pounds]. The locked container also had $250 in cash and several smaller containers with what they suspected to be methamphetamine and more fentanyl powder inside them, the officer alleged.

Officers allegedly learned from Walten that he travels to the Tacoma area to acquire fentanyl and “gives fentanyl to his friends.”

He was arrested and transported to the Pacific County Jail, where he was booked for possession with the intent to deliver a controlled substance. While being booked, officers found $475 in his possession.

Walten appeared for a preliminary hearing in Pacific County Superior Court on May 27 and Judge Donald J. Richter set his bail at $50,000. He is scheduled to be arraigned on May 30, after the Observer’s news deadline.