San Francisco police seize cache of cocaine, meth, mushrooms and $600K cash in Mission drug bust
Police in San Francisco on Friday confirmed a recent drug bust in the Mission that resulted in two arrests and the seizure of a large stash of illicit drugs as well as over $600,000 in cash.
According to the release issued Friday morning, late last month on May 30 plainclothes SFPD officers assigned to Mission and Taraval stations executed a search warrant on a vehicle in the area of 17th and Shotwell in the Mission District. The warrant was related to a narcotics investigation that stemmed from a tip provided to SFPD by a community member.
Two suspects, 46-year-old Robert Pritchard and 46-year-old Ronald Butera, were found inside the vehicle and arrested. Police searched the car and found a large and widely varied cache of suspected narcotics. The drugs included approximately the kilos of cocaine, ketamine, mushrooms, acid, suspected MDMA, methamphetamine, and various other prescription drugs along with over $600,000 in cash.
Both Pritchard and Butera were transported and booked into San Francisco County Jail. Pritchard faces multiple charges including three counts of transportation of methamphetamine for sale, possession for sale of a controlled substance, possession of a substance exceeding one kilogram by weight, possession of methamphetamine for sale and sale or transportation of a controlled substance.
Butera faces charges for the sale or transportation of a controlled substance, possession for sale of a controlled substance as well as an outstanding warrant.
"Mission Station is grateful for the information provided by the community. As a result of working together, suspected drug dealers and an abundance of various narcotics – likely destined for the streets of San Francisco – were removed," said Mission Station Commanding Officer Captain Thomas Harvey in the release.
While arrests have been made, the case remains an open and active investigation. Anyone with information is asked to call the SFPD Tip Line at 1-415-575-4444 or Text a Tip to TIP411 and begin the text message with SFPD.
