City police make big drug bust
A report of a drug deal led Butler police early this morning to the discovery of several hundred bags of suspected heroin, more than two ounces of suspected crack cocaine and thousands of dollars in currency.
City officers found the cache in a car in the 300 block of West Jefferson Street, according to police.
Two-time drug felon Scott I. Bowra, 40, of Pittsburgh was among the pair of occupants found in the car and arrested.
He and Corabeth Claypool, 31, of Butler are both charged with felony and misdemeanor drug possession and conspiracy. It turned out that Bowra also was wanted on a state parole warrant.
The suspects are being held in the Butler County Prison on $100,000 bail each.
“It's a big bust,” said police Deputy Chief David Adam. “Is it going to stop drug dealing in Butler? No. But it thwarted efforts to get these drugs on the street.”
Bowra is believed to be a “mid-level dealer,” Adam said, meaning alleged customers would be lower street-level dealers.
Police Sgt. Ben Spangler and two other officers around midnight were sent to investigate the anonymous tip about a drug deal going down in a Chevrolet Impala, court documents said.
Claypool was in the driver's seat and Bowra was in the front passenger seat. Bowra, who gave the officers a name that they later learned was bogus, acted skittish.
Spangler, in his affidavit, noted that he was on guard that the defendant might try to make a run for it. Bowra, the officer said, kept staring into the distance while repeatedly reaching for the door latch.
While at the car, Spangler and the other officers, Sgt. Brian Grooms and Patrolman Caleb Forsythe, grew more suspicious. In the car they noticed a crack pipe on the passenger seat.
Behind the driver's seat, police said, was a backpack stuffed with money.
A subsequent search of Bowra turned up $977 in currency in the right pocket of his cargo shorts.
The police K-9 officer Gunner later alerted his handler, Grooms, of narcotics in the car, documents said.The evidence gathered at the scene allowed police to obtain a search warrant for the car.Inside the backpack, that contained an additional $5,303 in currency, documents said, the officers also found 509 stamp bags of suspected heroin and 56.9 grams of suspected crack.The suspected heroin was packaged in “bricks” consisting of 50 individual glassine bags. The alleged crack was in packets known as “8-balls,” each holding one-eighth of an ounce or about 3.5 grams.Spangler said that four cell phones were also seized. Police said they would likely seek an additional search warrant to comb the records of those phones.
