ROSEVILLE–

An undercover drug sting in Roseville netted an unexpected person – a Cal Fire battalion chief.

The bust happened near Harding Boulevard and Macario Court, an area of commercial businesses and motels. Police often do undercover operations to keep drugs out of the area.

Roseville Police officers were out there in the early morning hours of Sept. 30 when they arrested three people for drugs, one of them being Cal Fire Battalion Chief Ray Wright.

“He was arrested on a charge of transportation of methamphetamine,” said Dee Dee Gunther, Roseville Police spokeswoman. “The transportation of methamphetamine usually means that you drive methamphetamine in a car to take it someplace for the purpose of selling or furnishing it to somebody else.”

Wright is on his own time off from Cal Fire, which he joined in 2006 when his former department of Placer Consolidated Fire District joined Cal Fire.

Wright is no stranger to public service. His dad retired as chief of Placer Consolidated back in 1999, and his brother is a deputy with the Placer County Sheriff’s Department.

Roseville Police have targeted this area of drugs and other crimes.

“[We’re sending] a message that we don’t welcome any kind of criminal activity in Roseville. So they were doing one of those kind of routine operations and, unfortunately, this person was one of the people arrested,” Gunther said.

The District Attorney’s office will be looking at this case further by next week. No formal charges have been filed yet.