PORT ANGELES — A woman who allegedly has ties to Interstate 5 drug dealers and the muscle to collect from her debtors faces multiple drug-dealing charges at 9 a.m. today in Clallam County Superior Court.
The prosecuting attorney’s office has filed five charges of possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance — heroin and methamphetamine — against Marie Joan Haller, who turns 31 Saturday.
The Port Angeles resident has a status hearing Friday on one case filed May 24 involving two charges on which she has pleaded not guilty.
She will be arraigned Friday on three other drug-dealing charges.
The standard sentence range on each of the five charges is five to 10 years, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Steve Johnson said Wednesday.
Haller remained in the Clallam County jail Thursday on $400,000 bond. She could be sentenced to up to 50 years in jail on the five charges.
“She is a top-tier trafficker and supplier of drugs and controlled substances to Clallam County,” county sheriff’s office Chief Criminal Deputy Brian King, an Olympic Peninsula Narcotics Enforcement Team task force supervisor, said Wednesday.
“That’s based on interviews with those individuals involved in the drug culture in Clallam County, and obviously her involvement in those criminal cases.
“Those criminal cases speak volumes to corroborate that.”
The status hearing grew out of the state Department of Corrections “Operation Spring Cleaning” in May.
Arrested during the arrest-warrant roundup that nabbed a man living with her, Haller had, in her apartment, $13,325 in cash, more than 1 pound of heroin and nearly 3 ounces of methamphetamine with a combined street value of $68,000.
She gained release from jail on $50,000 bond.
OPNET apprehended her four months later, on Sept. 26, resulting in two more charges.
Based on “credible information from a source,” OPNET officers found 2.6 ounces of methamphetamine and heroin and a digital scale in Haller’s car, according to the probable cause statement. The drugs were street-valued at $6,300.
Haller will enter pleas on those charges Friday.
On Sept. 27, the fifth drug-dealing charge was filed.
Haller was arrested in the parking lot of her apartment complex in the 100 block of Penn Street in Port Angeles.
In Haller’s car and apartment, they found $1,536 in her wallet in $20 bills and smaller bills, 10.5 grams of methamphetamine, a digital scale and plastic bags commonly used to package drugs, according to a probable cause statement. The methamphetamine was street-valued at $580.
“During the months of August and September of 2019, OPNET had been hearing from various different sources in different locations that Haller was still making trips to the I-5 corridor and coming back with large quantities of drugs to sell,” according to the probable cause statement.
“On 9-25-2019, OPNET detectives received information that two different people were assaulted at Haller’s request because they owed her money.”
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.