The Charles Village apartment was largely empty — except for the guns, the drugs and the 20-ton hydraulic compressor.
The apartment, in the 2900 block of St. Paul St. near the Johns Hopkins University, was raided this week by detectives after a monthlong investigation. Police said Joseph Batson, 39, was arrested on the street with a 10 mm Glock pistol and 4.5 ounces of crack cocaine, while his wife, Jamie Batson, 25, who was put on home detention for a drug conviction in Baltimore County about a month ago, was arrested inside the apartment.
The compressor isn't something detectives see every day. A cursory Web search shows that the machine can be purchased for as little as $200. It's used to straighten, stamp and bend metal for automotive and general shop work, according to websites that have them for sale.
Detective Donny Moses, a police spokesman and drug investigator, said it's used by mid- to upper-level drug dealers to shape kilos of cocaine into neat, ready-to-package bricks.
"You know how you pour hot metal into something to shape it?" Moses said. "They liquefy the drugs, pour it into that shape, and then they compress the drugs into the form of a kilo block while it dries."
In the raid, police found baking soda and other agents used to cut drugs. "He was taking the raw cocaine, adding the cutting agent like baking soda or creatine, liquefying it and making a kilo, then selling it for a full raw kilo price," Moses said.
Also inside the home, police found a .357 revolver, a .50-caliber Desert Eagle semiautomatic handgun, a .22-caliber semiautomatic handgun, 1 1/2 kilos of powder cocaine and half a kilo of crack cocaine. There were also packing material, a heat sealer and an electronic money counter.
Police seized four vehicles from the Batsons: a 2008 Toyota Tundra, a 2005 Harley Davidson, a 2007 BMW and a 1991 Ford F150. They also seized another $34,000 from his bank account and are looking at properties that he owns (both Batsons' addresses are listed in the 3800 block of Birchview Ave. in Northeast Baltimore).
Joseph Batson has been charged with 22 counts of drug and handgun crimes and was ordered held without bond; Jamie Batson faces 14 counts and was being held in lieu of $3 million bond.
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