A Butler man accused of selling heroin and/or fentanyl to an undercover trooper during an alleged May controlled drug buy in the city was ordered to stand trial at a preliminary hearing Monday.

Elijah J. Lane, 26, was arrested for the suspected drug deal during a federal drug sweep June 24 in Butler County. Lane was not charged in the federal investigation.

District Judge William Fullerton ruled there was sufficient evidence to hold Lane for court on state charges, including possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance, a felony, and possession of a controlled substance and drug paraphernalia, both misdemeanors.

He remains in the Butler County Prison on $50,000 bond.

A state police vice officer testified that an undercover trooper placed a call to a telephone number as part of the May 21 investigation. An unknown male answered the phone.

The undercover trooper told the male he had $500, the vice officer said. The Butler Eagle's policy is to not identify such officers due to the nature of their assignment.

“The male said that he had tickets, but no candy,” the officer testified during questioning by Laura Pitchford, county assistant district attorney.

The officer explained that “tickets, but no candy” in street slang meant the male had heroin to sell, but not crack cocaine.

On cross-examination by Lane's attorney, public defender Michael McFarland, the officer said police obtained the phone number that was called through a joint investigation between the FBI, the state police vice unit and the county's drug task force.

The officer acknowledged he did not know any specific person associated with that number. The call was made from outside the police barracks in Butler Township.

Not knowing he was speaking to an undercover trooper, the male told the trooper to go to an apartment building on the 300 block of South Monroe Street.

“How are you familiar with that address?” McFarland asked the vice officer.

“It's an ongoing investigation that we were conducting,” the vice officer said. But he noted Lane was not part of that investigation at the time.

The officer also said the defendant was not known to him before that day.

He said surveillance was deployed before the undercover trooper's arrival for the arranged drug deal. The officer was part of the surveillance team along with two FBI agents, two other vice officers with the state police and two county drug task force officers.

At 1:09 p.m., the officer said, he watched a male, later identified as Lane, walk from the area of his home on McClain Avenue to the South Monroe Street apartment building. The defendant eventually made his way to the intersection of Eola Street and McClain Avenue.

There, Lane entered the front passenger side of the undercover trooper's car. The vice officer testified as to how the deal played out. He said the undercover trooper gave Lane $500 in official funds and Lane gave the trooper nine capsules of suspected heroin/fentanyl.

The defendant returned $50 to the trooper, telling him the alleged drugs were not worth $500, the vice officer said. The suspected drugs are still awaiting police lab testing.

Lane was seen walking back to his home following the alleged drug deal.

“Is there any reason why he's not arrested that day?” McFarland asked.

“Because there was an ongoing investigation that would have been jeopardized,” the officer replied.

He said he was familiar with Lane's address from prior drug investigations. But on that day, he did not know that's where Lane was living.

The defendant was eventually arrested at his home June 24 — the day of an FBI-led roundup of suspects charged in a federal indictment that was also unsealed that day.

Federal, state and county authorities conducted simultaneous raids around 6 a.m. at different locations in Butler and Washington counties.

The vice officer testified that the FBI went to Lane's home with a search warrant. Authorities also went there with an arrest warrant for one of the nine suspects named in the indictment.

No charges were filed against Lane stemming from the federal case, the vice officer said.