Texts lead to drug case against man
A cell phone examination turned up text messages documenting alleged drug dealing between a Buffalo Township man and suspected customers, authorities said.
The Butler County Drug Task Force on Thursday arrested 34-year-old Wayne Robert Johnson in connection with the findings of the phone inspection.
District Judge Sue Haggerty arraigned Johnson on a felony charge of criminal use of a communication facility and a misdemeanor charge of possession of drug paraphernalia.
He is being held in the Butler County Prison on $20,000 bail.
The defendant has been jailed since Feb. 10, when Butler County adult probation officers found him hiding between the bed and wall in the bedroom of his home on Park Drive, according to court documents.
The officers had gone there about 1:15 p.m. on a home compliance check.
When he was arrested, he was holding a cell phone. Officers noticed text messages between Johnson and someone named “Chop” discussing the sale of “bricks” for $260, authorities said.
In drug parlance, a brick typically contains five bundles of heroin, with 10 stamp bags per bundle.
Investigators searched the home and found two digital scales, drug-packaging materials, 10 hypodermic needles, two crack pipes and six empty bags of suspected heroin.
Task force officers seized the contraband and Johnson’s cell phone, said county Detective Tim Fennell, who heads the drug force.
Haggerty on Feb. 16 issued officers a search warrant to scour the phone.
The forensic examination, Fennell said, revealed “multiple text messages where the defendant talks about buying heroin, bricks and bundles and selling tickets or stamp bags.”
Additionally, documents said, the phone search turned up “conversations about selling crack and (the) defendant needing to sell to make money.”
A preliminary hearing is set for 10:30 a.m. Wednesday at Haggerty’s office in Saxonburg.
