More drug charges filed
PENN TWP — A Butler County man free on bail while awaiting a hearing in one felony drug case was arrested again Tuesday on similar charges.
William G. Blust III, 21, of Petrolia was caught last month with bags of marijuana and another drug following a traffic stop on Route 8 in Penn Township, police said.
Blust on Tuesday turned himself in on an arrest warrant filed in the latest case.
District Judge Sue Haggerty arraigned him on three counts each of felony and misdemeanor drug possession, and a charge of possession of drug paraphernalia.
He was placed back into Butler County Prison on $10,000 bail.
Penn Township police, in the latest case, stopped Blust about 1 a.m. Jan. 22 on Route 8 near Airport Road after they saw his car traveled out of its lane three times, according to court documents.
Officer Alyssa Mathews said that when she got to the suspect’s car, she smelled marijuana coming from it. He eventually admitted he had “weed” that was in a backpack in the back seat.
A search of the backpack, police said, turned up two large bags of suspected marijuana, a large bag of suspected marijuana wax, rolling papers, a scale and $1,910 in currency.
In the car’s center console, documents said, police also seized four plastic bags that Blust admitted contained “Molly,” also called MDMA,
Molly is the purest form of MDMA, or ecstasy, a synthetic hallucinogen.
The drug seizure came six weeks after Butler police caught Blust with a large bag of marijuana and a large amount of money in his room at his mother’s house where he was living.
A tip from the defendant’s own mother led police Dec. 9 to the home and the discovery of about half a pound of marijuana and $1,160 in currency that belonged to Blust.
In that case, he was arraigned on felony and misdemeanor drug charges and jailed. He was released Dec. 11 after posting $3,000 bail.
His preliminary hearing in the Penn Township case is set for Feb. 15. His hearing in the Butler case is scheduled for March 20.
Blust’s attorney listed in online court records did not immediately return a telephone call for comment this morning.
