Deputies seize meth dealer's phone, leading to police raids across county

Texts with `Grandma' helped investigators find narcotics, drug deals

A series of police raids, methamphetamine seizures and felony cases can all be tied to Aug. 18, 2022.

That's the date Contra Costa Sheriff's deputies arrested 45-year-old Robert Brown and seized two cellphones from his Corvette after a police chase in Bay Point.

The discovery gave local drug investigators a glimpse into several suspected drug and gun rings around the county and led to a new federal case against a man Brown allegedly supplied with drugs, who fainted at his first court appearance and ended up hospitalized with cancer, according to court records.

The two phones weren't all deputies pulled from the Corvette. They also reportedly 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 rounds of ammunition, authorities said in court records. In late March, Brown pleaded guilty to federal gun possession and drug distribution charges. He's awaiting sentencing later this year, court records show.

The large-scale investigation started when investigators found a contact listed as “Grandma” in Brown's phone. But the things they said weren't very grandmotherly; authorities allege they found several text conversations where the two discuss drug deals, including a planned meetup in Martinez. The discovery led to the identification of the other phone user and raids in Brentwood and Oakland, where authorities seized a total of 80 pounds of methamphetamine, according to court records.

Another string of messages reportedly involved Mark Pike, a Bay Point resident with more than a dozen prior drug arrests and who was on parole for an assault conviction at the time of the investigation. Police followed Pike's purple Cadillac Escalade and arrested him in October 2022 on suspicion of possessing 3.5 pounds of methamphetamine, and again in December with 1 pound of the drug and a loaded gun, authorities said in court records.

Pike was charged in January with possessing methamphetamine with intent for distribution, but there was an unexpected hangup in his case. At his first appearance before a judge, he fainted in open court and was hospitalized for weeks. A recently filed court record says Pike has been diagnosed with cancer and requires surgery, but has had trouble scheduling medical appointments while incarcerated at Santa Rita Jail.

A January prosecution memo seeking to keep Pike detained says that he went to prison in 2016 for beating an ex-girlfriend with a tire iron and later bragged in a text message that he “sent her 2 da (sic) hospital.”

In a recurring theme for this case, that wasn't all police found in Pike's cellphone. Investigators allegedly uncovered discussions with several more drug dealers not previously on their radar, as well as texts between Pike and a man in Brown's circle, where drug and gun sales were discussed.

Brown has a prior gun conviction from an incident in Concord, where he allegedly shot and killed a man in self-defense at a local hotel.