Bellingham man suspected of selling heroin and illegal guns out of drug house he ran
The Whatcom Gang and Drug Task Force, with the help of the Bellingham Police Department SWAT and Major Crimes Unit, arrested a man Monday suspected of running a Puget neighborhood drug house and selling large amounts of heroin and illegal firearms.
Nathan Wayne Jerls, 37, was booked into Whatcom County Jail on Monday, July 7, on suspicion of four counts of delivery of a controlled substance, three counts of unlawful possession of a firearm and one count each of maintaining a drug house, possession with intent to deliver heroin and possession of a stolen firearm.
Detectives also seized more than a half-pound of heroin while searching Jerls’ Bellingham apartment and $3,000 in cash he was carrying, according to a Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office news release on the arrest.
“The sale of heroin and methamphetamine have taken a huge toll on our community,” Whatcom County Sheriff Bill Elfo said in the release. “The quantity of narcotics seized in this case and the possession of firearms by those trafficking in the drugs, illustrates the dangers presented in terms of the potential for overdose deaths, destroyed lives and violence.”
Jerls’ arrest was the culmination of an 11-month investigation after the Whatcom Gang and Drug Task Force and Bellingham Police Department began getting reports that Jerls and his girlfriend were dealing large amounts of narcotics and illegally selling firearms in and around Bellingham, according to the release.
Between August 2019 and June of 2020, the task force made a series of undercover narcotics purchases, mostly for heroin, from Jerls, the release stated.
On Monday afternoon, the Bellingham SWAT team served a search warrant on Jerls’ apartment in the 2000 block of Fraser Street, the release said. While police were serving the warrant, Jerls reportedly fled out the back door of the apartment while carrying two handguns and an AR-15 rifle.
SWAT members confronted Jerls and ordered him to drop the weapons, the release stated, and he was taken into custody without further incident.
One of the handguns was found to be stolen out of Everett, according to the release, and Jerls was in possession of numerous rounds of ammunition and more than $3,000 cash.
While searching the apartment, detectives found evidence that Jerls was actively selling and manufacturing drugs and seized more than a half-pound of heroin, a small amount of methamphetamine, drug scales, drug ledgers and other narcotics-related items, the release stated.
Jerls is scheduled to make his first appearance Tuesday, July 8, according to Whatcom County Superior Court records, and he has previous Snohomish County convictions for unlawful possession of a firearm, possession of a controlled substance, forgery and burglary from between 2006 and 2012.
