Bremerton drug dealer sentenced to 11 ½ years in prison

A Bremerton drug dealer whom prosecutors portrayed as a leader in "the methamphetamine scourge that has swept across the Kitsap Peninsula" was sentenced to 11 ½ years in a federal prison this morning.

U.S. District Judge Ronald Leighton in Tacoma pronounced Ronald Craig Potter "a drug dealer, a bully and a thief" in handing the 42-year-old man the sentence for meth and gun possession.

"The Kitsap Peninsula is better off without him there," Leighton said.

Federal agents raided Potter's home in August 2007 and found drugs and scales, a police scanner, electronic monitoring equipment, several guns and more than $40,000 in cash.

Potter was convicted by a jury last year of methamphetamine possession with intent to distribute and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking offense.

"Potter was much more than a user of methamphetamine or a 'tweeker,' " Assistant U.S. Attorney Marc Perez argued in court documents. "To the contrary, he was a longtime, sophisticated and brazen drug dealer in Kitsap County."

Ian Ith: 206-464-2109 or iith@seattletimes.com