Seattle police seized more than $200,000 worth of heroin and arrested a 49-year-old man last week in a SeaTac apartment where loaded guns were found within easy reach of two young children, according to King County prosecutors.
Frederick Pigott, who had been wanted on an outstanding warrant for nearly a year in connection with a 2018 drug case, was booked into the King County Jail early Friday on that felony warrant. He was released less than 24 hours later after posting $40,000 bail, jail and court records show. Pigott was then charged Tuesday with additional gun and drug charges in connection with Friday’s bust, and is now wanted on a $100,000 warrant, court records show.
Though charging documents don’t say why the Seattle Police Department’s Major Crimes Task Force began investigating Pigott, an item posted last week on the department’s online blotter indicates he is accused of dealing drugs in the East Precinct. Based on the amount of cash and drugs seized, Senior Deputy Prosecutor Dana Cashman wrote in charging documents that Pigott appears to be involved in “high-level drug dealing.”
Also arrested Friday was a 29-year-old woman who had previously been arrested with Pigott in the 2018 case and whose criminal case was transferred to drug court, according to court records. The woman was released from jail Saturday after posting $10,000 bail but is not being named by The Seattle Times because as of Tuesday, she had not been charged in connection with the SeaTac bust.
In the April 2018 case, a King County sheriff’s deputy pulled over a car in White Center. Pigott was behind the wheel and the woman, described as Pigott’s girlfriend, was in the passenger seat, court records say. Pigott attempted to run but was quickly caught and deputies found a loaded gun in his pants. They later searched the car and seized more than $8,000 and nearly 9 grams of heroin that had been packaged in individual baggies, say the records.
According to charges in the most recent case:
Police obtained a search warrant and a Seattle police SWAT team entered the couple’s SeaTac apartment on Friday. In addition to Pigott and his girlfriend, there were three other adults and the girlfriend’s two children, ages 4 and 10, inside.
During the search, detectives found two loaded guns — a revolver in the living room and a pistol in the master bedroom — that were both within easy reach of the children, according to the charges. A gun that had been reported stolen in Seattle was found in a safe, along with a large amount of heroin. Also during the search, police found information that led them to a Burien apartment, where Pigott’s ex-girlfriend stores large amounts of drugs and cash for him, the charges say.
Police then got a second search warrant for the Burien apartment. No one was home when detectives seized a fourth handgun, ammunition, drugs and cash.
Between the two residences, police seized four guns, more than four pounds of heroin valued at $203,880, nearly $35,000 in cash, plus $8,000 worth of marijuana, a variety of pills, cocaine and meth, charging papers say.
In Tuesday’s bust, Pigott faces charges of second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm and violation of the uniform controlled-substances act, a felony drug charge known as a VUCSA.
