PORT ANGELES – Bernard Gilbert “Pete” Barnes, who has pleaded guilty to drug and money laundering charges, made deliveries in Tupperware, according to court records.
Barnes, 54, who is described in court documents as a major regional supplier of cocaine, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to five drug charges, money laundering and using his illicit money.
His plea came six days before he was slated for a three-week trial on two sets of charges, one in 2003 and another in 2004.
Thomas Paxton – who accepted a plea offer in 2004 to settle four counts of cocaine possession with intent to deliver – told police that Barnes often delivered cocaine to customers by putting it in Tupperware containers, court documents said.
Barnes would bury the containers in wooded areas west and south of Port Angeles, according to court documents.
Paxton once took an Olympic Peninsula Narcotics Enforcement Team informant to one of these “drop spots,” leaving the informant behind but returning from the woods with cocaine, court documents said.
When Barnes, a Port Angeles man, was arrested in 2003, and traces of cocaine were found in his pickup truck, investigators also found a Tupperware container with dirt on it.
Barnes’ trial had been scheduled to begin next Monday.
Instead he charged a not guilty plea to guilty on charges of conspiracy to deliver cocaine, using money acquired through criminal activity, money laundering and three counts of delivery of cocaine, all felonies.
He also pleaded guilty to solicitation of cocaine, a gross misdemeanor.
He had been charged with a total of seven cocaine delivery charges, cocaine possession and leading organized crime.
He could face six years in prison and the forfeiture of two vehicles, $8,000 in cash that was already seized and a $30,000 fine.
His sentencing is slated for Nov. 8.
