Police seize drugs in arrests
Butler Township police and state police seized an assortment of drugs — cocaine, marijuana, crack and narcotic painkillers — during unrelated arrests this week.
Charged with felony drug possession are Kenneth L. Johnson, 38, of Butler; and Donteze L. White, 27, of Philadelphia.
On Wednesday night, Butler Township police were called for a report of drug dealing in the parking lot of a convenience store on Center Avenue. Patrolman David Tedeski shortly after 9 p.m. stopped Johnson in his car.
When the officer confronted Johnson, he started a disturbance that led from the parking lot to the store, according to court documents.
Back at the car, police noticed a suspicious plastic bag, tied in a double knot to the driver's door handle. The suspect claimed it was trash.
When Johnson opened the door, Tedeski smelled an “overwhelmingly strong odor of marijuana,” the officer said in his affidavit.
Police arrested Johnson for suspicion of drug possession. He was searched and found carrying a large wad of money.
Butler Township police Lt. Matthew Pearson declined to say how much, only that it was more than $1,000 in cash.
The bag in the door, documents said, contained suspected crack cocaine. When police went to put Johnson in handcuffs, they found him holding a plastic bag with suspected powdered cocaine in it.
Inside the car's center console, police seized a bag of suspected marijuana and a scale.
Police said the different cocaine represented a “substantial amount” and the marijuana was a “small amount.”
District Judge Sue Haggerty arraigned Johnson on charges of possession with intent to deliver, possession of a controlled substance and drug paraphernalia, possession of a small amount of marijuana, and disorderly conduct.He is in the county prison on $50,000 bail.State police arrested White about 8:20 p.m. Tuesday after a traffic stop on South Monroe Street in Butler. He was riding in a car that was stopped for a window tint violation, police said.An eventual pat-down search of White turned up 20 pills that were in a plastic bag inside his pants, court documents said. The pills are believed to be the potent painkiller oxycodone.Police said they later found nine individual packages of cocaine in his sock.District Judge William Fullerton arraigned White on charges of felony and misdemeanor drug possession. He was placed in the county prison on $25,000 bail following arraignment.
