The Butler County Drug Task Force on Monday arrested a pair of suspected crack cocaine dealers from Detroit.

Rico T. Knox, 28, and his brother, Marcellus R. Knox, 24, were nabbed on Butler's south side and accused of dealing crack from a Center Avenue apartment.

A search of the apartment yielded more than $2,600 hidden under a bathroom sink, investigators said.

District Judge Pete Shaffer arraigned both defendants on drug trafficking and other charges in connection with two separate cases, and sent each to the Butler County Prison on $200,000 bail.

Authorities have been investigating the suspects since earlier this year, according to court documents.

The task force in February and April set up controlled drug buys during which the defendants allegedly sold crack to a police informant at an apartment in the 300 block of Center Avenue.

The Knoxes remained under task force surveillance, and then on Monday, officers moved in.

Lead investigator Lt. Michael Dalcamo said Marcellus Knox was spotted getting into a vehicle outside the Center Avenue apartment. A known crack addict was driving the vehicle.

The vehicle was stopped and the younger Knox arrested stemming from the previous case. He was searched and found with a rock of suspected crack and $398 in currency, documents said.

Officers went to the apartment where the suspected dealers had set up business, Dalcamo said in court papers, and found the tenant there.

The renter, who appeared “extremely nervous” allowed officers inside documents said. There they found Rico Knox.

The older Knox, when questioned, provided officers with a bogus name and birth date. The tenant claimed he knew Knox only by the street name “Freeway.”

Knox was taken to the Butler police station and searched. He was found with $636 in a pocket.

Meanwhile, the tenant ultimately admitted to investigators that he was an addict and had agreed to allow the Knoxes to deal out of his apartment “in exchange for free crack,” documents said.

Dalcamo said officers later combed the apartment for evidence and found $2,605 stashed under the sink in the bathroom.

Rico and Marcellus Knox both are charged with delivery of a controlled substance, conspiracy to deliver a controlled substance and possession of a controlled substance.

Additionally, the older Knox is charged with false identification to law enforcement authorities.

Investigators in an affidavit filed with charges also noted that Rico Knox is wanted in Michigan on drug charges.