OAKLAND — Robert Allan Brown is in jail on federal charges of being a felon in possession of ammunition, but the investigation behind his arrest runs much deeper.
Brown, 44, of Bay Point, was charged June 6 with the lone felony count, which carries up to 10 years in prison. The charge stems from an August 2022 traffic stop that also led state and federal authorities down a rabbit hole of the methamphetamine industry of East Contra Costa County and back to a Brentwood residence where police seized six pounds of the drug years before.
Prosecutors say that on Aug. 18, 2022, Contra Costa Sheriff’s deputies on patrol in Pittsburg attempted to pull Brown over, but he fled in his Corvette, leading the deputies and later Antioch officers on a chase that ended at a residence on Cleveland Avenue in Bay Point. There, a sheriff’s drug sniffing dog almost immediately jumped into the vehicle and alerted to a center console, where police allegedly found 1.6 pounds of methamphetamine, a silencer, roughly 1,000 fentanyl pills and almost two ounces of heroin, along with two guns and 13 round of ammunition, authorities said in court records.
They also reportedly found Brown’s phone, which led the investigation in different directions. Brown allegedly had many conversations with several people discussing drug and gun buys, but one contact stood out to investigators. It was listed under “Grandma” in his phone, but actually led to a number of a man living in Brentwood who had been in contact with the relative of a California drug dealer that had been caught with 20 pounds of methamphetamine and several thousand fentanyl pills, authorities say.
Seizing on that lead, authorities investigated the Brentwood man and realized he was associated with a residence on Lone Tree Way in Brentwood, where Pittsburg police found six pounds of methamphetamine hidden in a hole in the backyard during a 2020 raid. In that investigation, the Pittsburg Police Department suspected the drugs were being transported to the Bay Area from Los Angeles, authorities say.
Last December, sheriff’s investigators raided the Lone Tree Way residence again, along with an Oakland address, and found undisclosed amounts of cocaine, fentanyl, methamphetamine, a gun and marijuana, according to authorities.
Brown was arrested on gun charges four years ago, but like the more recent case those charges don’t tell the full story. In that July 2019 incident, Brown found himself in the middle of a love triangle that resulted a night of betrayals and a fatal shooting.
It all started when Brown allegedly began an affair with the wife of 36-year-old Daniel Schrader, who authorities said then conspired with his wife to rob Brown. As part of the plot, Schrader allegedly included a friend and fellow gang member named Adam Renfroe, 34, as backup.
The robbery was supposed to take place at a Motel 6 in Concord, but when Schrader and Renfroe arrived with pistols, Brown was ready and according to police allegedly killed Schrader in self-defense, just moments after he texted his wife to open the hotel door.
Adding to the murkiness of the incident, Brown and Renfroe allegedly had a brief conversation in the hotel’s parking lot after the shooting, then went their separate ways. Renfroe was arrested on conspiracy and robbery charges in South Dakota weeks later, while Brown eluded capture until October 2019, when he was arrested on the gun possession warrant. Both men accepted plea deals, according to court records.
Source: www.mercurynews.com