Site last updated: Saturday, May 23, 2026

Log In

Reset Password
MENU
Butler County's great daily newspaper

Bond set at $100K each for drug suspects

Three young men remain behind bars on six-figure bond each following a drug raid Friday morning at an apartment on the 200 block of North Main Street.

Officers with the Butler County Drug Task Force, armed with a search warrant, seized suspected crack cocaine, hundreds of dollars, digital scales and a half-dozen cellphones in the raid shortly after 6 a.m.

Arrested were Malachi Void III, 32, who lives at the apartment; Khalif W. Rippy, 20, of Butler; and Kahlil Z. Rippy Jr., 21, of Philadelphia.

The arrests culminated an investigation of suspected drug trafficking at the home that included controlled drug buys, investigators said.

District Judge Bill O'Donnell arraigned all three defendants on felony charges of possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance and conspiracy to possess with intent to deliver a controlled substance, and a misdemeanor charge of possession of drug paraphernalia.

Void also is charged with possession of a small amount of marijuana, a misdemeanor. The suspects are in the Butler County Prison, each in lieu of $100,000 bond.

The task force relied on a confidential informant during its investigation into alleged drug activity at the apartment, according to court documents. The informant in early September told investigators that he/she had purchased narcotics from Void.

The informant also advised that Void had two “cousins” from Philadelphia at the home.

Investigators were familiar with the apartment from other incidents. Butler police on Aug. 1 responded there for a woman who had overdosed, documents said. She recovered after receiving two doses of Narcan.

On Sept. 7, Void reported to city police that his apartment had been burglarized, authorities said, and that a safe containing $20,000 had been stolen.

Task force officers in mid-September used the informant to buy crack from Void, documents said.

During the investigation, the informant allegedly made another crack buy from Void, within 48 hours of the task force applying for the search warrant.

The warrant was executed with the assistance of city police and the Butler County Emergency Services Unit. Officers said they found Void in the living room and both Rippys in the master bedroom.

The search turned up four bags of suspected crack, weighing a combined 2.27 grams, under the mattress in the master bedroom, documents said. A small plastic bag of suspected marijuana was found in a shoe in the same bedroom.

Other items found in that bedroom included two digital scales and suspected drug-packaging materials.

In all, officers also seized $1,304 in currency, of which $815 was found on Kahlil Rippy, investigators said, and $189 was found in a pillow case in the living room.

Additional drug-packaging materials were also found in the living room.

The collected evidence, documents said, were “indicative of drug trafficking.”

Online court records did not list attorneys for the defendants, and preliminary hearings for them were not immediately scheduled.

More in Local News

Subscribe to our Daily Newsletter

* indicates required
TODAY'S PHOTOS