Ex-NBA player Robert Swift facing gun charge after police seize sawed-off shotgun and grenade launch

Robert Swift broke bad.

Once an NBA starter, the 28-year-old is facing a gun charge, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports. But that’s not all. Prosecutors in King County, Wash., describe the former Sonics and Thunder player as “a heavily armed heroin addict who admitted to helping his drug dealer-turned-roommate [54-year-old Trygve Bjorkstam] collect a drug debt,” the Post-Intelligencer adds. There’s more:

Investigators contend a military-style grenade launcher and sawed-off shotgun were seized from Swift’s bedroom during an Oct. 4 raid on Bjorkstam’s Kirkland home, located 100 yards from an elementary school. Swift was charged Thursday with unlawful possession of a short-barreled shotgun.

Accused of amassing an 18-gun arsenal to protect his drug business, Bjorkstam is said to have defended Swift to police, describing him as a ‘good guy’ who helped him try to collect a heroin debt but did not deal drugs himself.

Swift left the NBA in 2009 after being drafted straight out of high school in 2004. He was the 12th overall pick and made $11.4 million before leaving the league, Business Insider reports. That was enough to buy a house outside of Seattle. However, the property was foreclosed upon last year, and Swift left it riddled with bullet holes, trash and dog feces, as well as more heartbreaking leftovers, such as photographs of Swift in his NBA prime and a box full of college scholarship offers, some of which were never even opened, according to KOMO-TV.

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Swift, who admitted to police he uses heroin daily, wasn’t living any better with Bjorkstam.

“There were used needles, methamphetamine pipes with residue, baggies with residue and pieces of used aluminum foil scattered in plain view throughout the residence and in both suspects’ bedrooms,” a law enforcement officer said in court papers (via the Post-Intelligencer).

The duos’ weapons cache was prolific, according to charging papers. Besides the 40-mm grenade launcher, Swift’s bedroom contained a 12-gauge shotgun, a sawed-off shotgun 8 1/2 inches shorter than federal law requires and six other firearms. Bjorkstam had 17 more guns, including three assault rifles and 10 pistols, the Post-Intelligencer reports.

Swift, who has no previous criminal history, and is facing the one gun charge was ordered to be held on a $20,000 bond. Bjorkstam, meanwhile, who is free on bond, is facing more charges, including the possessions of heroin and methamphetamine with intent to distribute and possession of a firearm in the furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, the Post-Intelligencer reports.

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