EVANS CITY — An alert patrol officer's seemingly routine traffic stop Tuesday afternoon ended with an alleged drug dealer behind bars and the confiscation of 150 bags of suspected heroin and hundreds of dollars.

Evans City police officer Brian Mazzanti was on Route 68 about 5 p.m. when he ran a vehicle's license plate number and found its driver had a suspended license.

The officer pulled over the car on East Main Street in the borough. He soon learned the driver, Machel C. McIntosh, 27, of Pittsburgh, was wanted on an unrelated arrest warrant stemming from a Butler County Drug Task Force investigation.

Before long, McIntosh admitted he was holding a small amount of marijuana in one of his socks, Mazzanti said. He also acknowledged he had recently smoked marijuana

Police searched the sock and found a small amount of the drug in a baggie.

Mazzanti arrested McIntosh for suspected drugged driving and took him to UPMC Passavant Cranberry for a blood test.

Later, the officer drove McIntosh to Butler in connection with the drug task force warrant.

That arrest warrant was issued only Tuesday stemming from a controlled drug buy between McIntosh and a police informant on May 21 in Butler. The suspect is accused in that case of selling the informant crack cocaine in exchange for $100, according to court documents.

But before he was given a thorough search and booked into the county prison on charges in the task force case, McIntosh had another admission to Mazzanti: he was carrying a lot of heroin and a lot of money.

The officer said 150 bags of suspected heroin and $479 in currency were seized from McIntosh.

Mazzanti said that once he receives the toxicology results, he expects to charge McIntosh with possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance, possession of a small amount of marijuana, driving under the influence of a controlled substance and driving with a suspended license.

McIntosh is in the Butler County Prison on $75,000 bail on the task force charges that include felony drug trafficking as well as felony and misdemeanor drug possession.