John McCain Campaign Fundraiser Arrested After Raid On House Yields Meth Lab And Children
John McCain and his election campaign have officially severed ties with campaign fundraiser Emily Pitha, 35, today after it was discovered that she had been arrested Tuesday afternoon in a drug raid at her Phoenix, Arizona home.
Pitha’s boyfriend — Christopher Hustrulid, 36 — had allegedly ordered a package from the Netherlands which contained 250 grams of MDMA. That package was closely monitored by authorities on its way out of the Netherlands and into the United States, and upon arrival at Pitha’s house it was promptly signed for by Hustrulid, after which the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Department moved in to make arrests.
What they found inside the house — located at 19th and Bethany Home Road — however was far more than just MDMA. Inside were LSD, meth, cocaine, heroine, around $7,000 in cash, counterfeit money, a possible small marijuana grow operation in the back, and even a meth lab, which also had bomb making materials and highly dangerous chemicals that can cause explosions, RawStory reported.
ABC 15 News Arizona reported that the couple had been “shipping the drugs all over the U.S,” and that their neighbors had no idea what was going on. “He seems like a great guy, but I think that is what allows it to be successful– you don’t look like the stereotype. I would never believe that. But when you see things like this on the news, no neighbor thinks their neighbor is doing something like that. You just have to be cautious,” Jack Griffin, who is a neighbor of the couple said.
My Det's seized large drug shipment from Europe,2 arrests,meth lab, xplosive material, many drugs involved. pic.twitter.com/s1OIOMKwbr
— Sheriff Joe Arpaio (@RealSheriffJoe) April 27, 2016
McCain’s former fundraiser and her boyfriend will face multiple charges for possession, and they will likely see intent to sell charges too. They’ll also probably be hit with child endangerment charges, as Detective Matteson said that there were drugs “all over the home,” CBS News reported.
Pitha’s LinkedIn profile shows that she not only worked for Senator John McCain but had also worked for Senator Jeff Flake and former Senator Jon Kyl. Both Senators are from Arizona.
KTar News reported John McCain’s campaign manager, Ryan O’Daniel, as stating, “we are thankful for the hard work and dedication of Arizona law enforcement to keep our communities safe. Like everyone else, we are shocked and saddened by the news regarding Ms. Pitha. Upon learning of her alleged involvement in the operation, the campaign immediately terminated any relationship with her.”
What the bomb making materials were there for remains unknown, but for the time being the bomb squad has been deployed to get rid of the hazardous and possibly explosive materials both in the meth lab and near the house, Arizona Central also reported Detective Mattheson as saying. More information will hopefully become available as the investigation continues.
John McCain hasn’t been in the news much since Donald Trump called him out for getting captured in Vietnam last year, as The Inquisitr reported. Though Senator McCain did recently go on record when talking about the EU, saying that it is vital for Britain to stay in the union due to U.S. security concerns. McCain is running for re-election this year. If he wins, this will be his sixth term as a senator for the state of Arizona.
[Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images]
