Kelso Resident Sentenced to Prison for Gun and Drug Crimes

            A Kelso, Washington resident who was arrested as he left a motel room containing four firearms, while carrying four bags of heroin for distribution, was sentenced to seven years in prison, announced U.S. Attorney Jenny A. Durkan.  ALLEN MARSTON, 35, has prior convictions for drug distribution, domestic violence assault and illegal weapons possession so he is barred from possessing firearms.  U.S. District Judge Robert J. Bryan imposed three years of supervised release following the prison term.

            According to records filed in the case, the Cowlitz Wahkiakum Narcotics Task Force (CWNTF) served a court-authorized search warrant on MARSTON’s motel room in Kelso on May 16, 2012.  MARSTON was stopped by police as he left the motel.  In his pockets, law enforcement found four bags containing more than 41 grams of heroin.  A search of the motel room turned up four firearms including an AMT .380 caliber semi-automatic pistol, a Russian SKS 7.62 caliber semi-automatic rifle, a Kel Tec .223 caliber semi-automatic pistol, and a Ruger .40 caliber semi-automatic pistol.  One of the firearms had been reported stolen.  Law enforcement also found scales, packaging material, a grinder, spoons, prescription pills, hypodermic needles, and other drug paraphernalia in the motel room.

            In their request for an 87-month sentence, prosecutors wrote to the court that a significant sentence, with a drug treatment component, is important to protect the public. “Marston’s drug problem is not an excuse for his continued, serious, and dangerous criminal conduct in this case, nor for his own spreading of the poison that is heroin in order to financially support his own habit.  Marston’s possession of firearms at the same time he was trafficking in heroin … demonstrates a serious and very real potential for more trouble in the future,” prosecutors wrote in their sentencing memo.

            The case was investigated by the Cowlitz Wahkiakum Narcotics Task Force and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives (ATF), and was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Gregory A. Gruber.