Man jailed after traffic stop
An Allegheny County man is in the Butler County Prison in lieu of $100,000 bond stemming from a traffic stop last week in Buffalo Township during which state police say they found 450 stamp bags of suspected heroin.
Larry O. “Bird” Young III, 30, of McKeesport, is facing a preliminary hearing Sept. 9 on felony and misdemeanor drug charges.
Police said Young was a backseat passenger in a car that was pulled over about 9:05 p.m. Wednesday on Route 28 north after the driver changed lanes without signaling.
The driver appeared nervous, police said, and he was asked to step out of the car. He identified the front-seat passenger as his girlfriend and Young as being someone he met a couple of months ago.
He denied there was anything illegal in the vehicle, police said. When police asked if they could search the car, he told the officer “no,” according to charging documents.
The arresting trooper subsequently had the passengers get out of the car. Police said as Young stepped out, they smelled a “strong odor” of marijuana coming from him.
The front-seat passenger also allegedly admitted there were “needles” in the vehicle, documents said.
The trooper advised the driver and passengers that he had “probable cause” to search the vehicle without a warrant. The search turned up a backpack under the rear passenger seat.
In the backpack, documents said, were 450 glassine bags of suspected heroin and a bag containing suspected marijuana. Police said they also found three hypodermic needles in a bag in the area of the front passenger seat.
Young was arrested, documents said, because he was “the only person that smelled like marijuana and the (backpack) was located by his feet under the passenger seat.”
District Judge Lewis Stoughton arraigned Young on Thursday on a felony charge of possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance and misdemeanor charges of possession of a controlled substance and drug paraphernalia, and possession of a small amount of marijuana.
Online court records did not indicate if Young has an attorney.
