Cases grow for alleged drug dealer
The number of cases pending trial for a suspected drug dealer has grown to three.
Anthony S. McGuire, 37, who has no known address, on Monday waived his preliminary hearing in the latest case that Butler police filed that same day.
He is charged with driving under the influence of a controlled substance, three counts of possession of a controlled substance, and one count each of possession of drug paraphernalia and failing to keep right.
City police arrested McGuire after his vehicle nearly hit a patrol car shortly after 10 p.m. March 27 on West Wayne Street, according to court documents.
The defendant appeared high on drugs after an officer pulled him over in the 400 block of Liberty Street. He was searched and found with 19 stamp bags of suspected heroin, police said.
Inside a fast food bag in the vehicle, police allegedly found more contraband including a syringe loaded with a clear liquid, a spoon with suspected drug residue and a cigarette pack with a crack pipe in it.
Still more evidence — including $2,669 in currency — was seized from a back pack that was on the driver's seat floor, police said.
The money was in a brown paper sack within the back pack, which also contained a digital scale, eight syringes, two spoons, five razor blades, and a Chore Boy copper scrubber, which is commonly used to filter crack pipes.
Additionally, police said they found in the pack three clonazepam pills and two Suboxone strips for which McGuire did not have prescriptions.
He was eventually released. But two months later, Butler police arrested him again.
Officers this time were looking for McGuire on a bench warrant May 31 when they spotted him get into the passenger seat of a car at a store on East Jefferson Street.
Police stopped and searched him. He had 40 stamp bags of suspected heroin and a bag containing 3.1 grams of suspected crack cocaine, according to court documents.
He also was carrying $80 in currency and a cell phone. The phone, police said, “was ringing consistently after McGuire was placed in (the) patrol vehicle.”
The defendant was taken to the Butler County Prison, where he admitted that he had more drugs on him. A search, police said, turned up five additional stamp bags of suspected heroin inside his shorts.
He is charged in that case with two counts each of possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance and possession of a controlled substance.
McGuire previously waived those charges as well as other unrelated charges stemming from a state police drug trafficking investigation earlier this year.
He is accused in that case of selling eight stamp bags of fentanyl, two stamp bags of heroin and 0.29 grams of crack during a $150 drug deal Feb. 12, 2016, at the Pullman Square shopping plaza in Butler.
Charges include felony and misdemeanor drug possession.
He remains in the county prison on $100,000 bail.
