Drug probe corners Muni driver - Police think bus may have been driven to cocaine transactions

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 3/21/5 | Phillip Matier, Andrew Ross

[SmithL]

A driver for San Francisco's Municipal Railway has been snared in an investigation into whether he was using his city bus as a delivery vehicle for drugs.

The 43-Masonic driver was detained this past week after wheeling his empty bus to a spot South of Market to meet a woman who police believe is a cocaine dealer, according to sources at the Hall of Justice.

The pair -- whose names had popped up repeatedly in a related drug investigation -- had been under police surveillance for a couple of weeks. The cops said they had regular bus hookups where drugs and cash appeared to be changing hands.

One meeting took place at the Daly City BART station, the cops said. Officers followed the Muni man as he drove all the way down there in an out-of- service 19-Polk bus.

On Thursday, the cops -- suspecting the bus driver was about to make a delivery -- followed his coach from the Kirkland bus yard near Fisherman's Wharf to the 200 block of Harrison Street, 3 miles from the start of his route out on Geneva Avenue.