4 arrested for drugs after house raid
BUTLER TWP — A pair of alleged Detroit drug dealers are jailed on $500,000 bail each after state police vice and special response units and county narcotics officers Wednesday night raided a home on Saxonburg Road, authorities.
About 4 ounces of suspected crack cocaine, 5 grams of suspected heroin and $3,400 in currency were seized in the operation authorized by a sealed search warrant.
The tenant at the rental home and a visitor, both suspected of drug dealing, were also arrested in the 8 p.m. raid.
Charged with felony counts of drug possession and dealing in proceeds of unlawful activities are Daveon S. Thompson, 24, and William V. Beavers Jr., 27, both of Detroit; Jack H. Hartle, 63, who lives at the home; and Heather A. Kuhrt, 33, of Center Township.
District Judge Lewis Stoughton on Thursday arraigned the defendants, who also all face misdemeanor drug charges.
Thompson and Beavers are in Butler County Prison on $500,000 bail each. Hartle and Kuhrt are being held on $100,000 and $50,000 bail, respectively.
Members of the state police Special Emergency Response Team before entering the one-story house set off a flash grenade that caused a percussion explosion. Officers with the state police vice unit and the Butler County Drug Task Force joined in executing the search warrant.
Once inside, investigators said, police found the four defendants scattered throughout the small house. They were rounded up and searched.
Thompson had a plastic baggie with about 11 grams of suspected crack cocaine in it and Beavers was holding $360 cash, according to court documents.
Police said they found Hartle with three baggies containing a combined 9 grams of suspected crack in his left sock. Kuhrt was caught with a used syringe.
A search of one bedroom turned up two plastic bags with a total of about 100 grams of suspected crack, a plastic bag with what appeared to be heroin, and a bottle with suspected marijuana.
In the second bedroom, police said, was a baggie containing an unidentified white substance and $2,905.
Another plastic baggie with suspected crack in it was found in the bathroom, police said.
Drug packaging materials, three scales and five cell phones were also seized from the house.
Police would not provide any other information about the investigation, including why they sought a sealed search warrant.
But as a matter of practice, search warrants are typically sealed to protect informants or to safeguard details of an ongoing investigation.
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