Police: Drugs, cash found
SLIPPERY ROCK TWP — A large container of laughing gas, dozens of LSD doses and a tub of THC butter was some of the evidence state narcotics officers found at a suspected drug dealer's home in the township, authorities said.
More than $3,500 in currency also was confiscated.
The weekend discovery from a search warrant led to a felony arrest warrant for 23-year-old William G. Blust III.
The state Office of the Attorney General's Bureau of Narcotics spearheaded the search Friday evening at Blust's apartment on the 800 block of New Castle Road.
Seized, court documents said, were 50 stamps of LSD, an eye dropper containing suspected LSD and a collection of cannabis concentrates including a large plastic container of THC butter, six THC oil cartridges and THC wax.
The search also turned up a 20-pound cylinder of nitrous oxide, also known as laughing gas, and a package of balloons.
The container of gas and balloons, investigators said, are “commonly used by a person who sells the nitrous oxide as an inhalant, which can cause dizziness, euphoria, hallucinations and other side effects.”
While nitrous oxide is legally used as a mild anesthetic, according to health experts, if inhaled improperly it can cause brain damage.
Officers during the search allegedly found $3,570 in currency throughout the home, documents said.
“The amounts and packaging of the (seized) items as well as the amount of currency and its concealment,” documents said, “are indicative of a person who is illegally selling and/or distributing narcotics.”
District Judge Lewis Stoughton on Saturday issued the arrest warrant for Blust on two felony counts of possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance.
Additionally, he is charged with misdemeanor counts of possession of a controlled substance and drug paraphernalia, and sale or illegal use of certain solvents and noxious substances.
This is not Blust's first brush with the law.
In December 2016, Butler police arrested him after they say they found about one-half pound of marijuana at his home.
He eventually pleaded guilty to misdemeanor possession in the case. In exchange, prosecutors withdrew a charge of felony possession.
He was sentenced in 2018 to 6 months on probation.
While free on bail following his arrest in Butler, Penn Township police arrested Blust in January 2017, accusing him of having two large bags of marijuana, a large bag of marijuana wax and four plastic bags of MDMA or ecstasy.
At a non-jury trial last year, he was found guilty of misdemeanor possession but not guilty of felony possession in that case.
He was sentenced to 1½ years on probation.
