Tyrone police busted a Brooklyn, NY teenager and four local residents in a drug bust late Tuesday afternoon at the Carriage House Apartments at Logan Avenue and 14th Street.
Police chief Joseph Beachem said his department and the Blair County Drug Task Force did a controlled buy at the apartment building at apartment No. 5.
“Shortly thereafter we obtained a search warrant and officers went in,” said Beachem. “We seized 46 packets of heroin and nine vials of ‘crack’ cocaine and some cash and made five arrests.”
Beachem said one of those arrested was a male juvenile from Brooklyn, NY.
Three of suspects were residents at the apartment. They are Rochelle Leighty, 43, her husband, Jesse Leighty and her son, 20-year-old J. Russell Breece.
Stephanie Snyder was also arrested when she came to the apartment, according to Beachem.
All the adult suspects were taken into custody and arraigned before a district justice in Hollidaysburg. The suspects were placed in the Blair County Prison with $25,000, 10 percent bond.
“We had a lot of good information from street sources, surveillance and the undercover buy,” said Beachem. “So, everything came together very well for us. We are real happy with the seizures and the arrests.”
Beachem said in addition to his department, the Williamsburg Police and Randy Feathers of the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office were also involved in the investigation.
“It’s the ongoing aggressive police work that’s down here in Tyrone,” said Feathers.
He said authorities seized $145 in addition to the drugs confiscated. The search warrants were obtained from District Justice Fred Miller, according to Feathers.
“It’s of concern we see a 17-year-old kid possessing that amount of drugs, not from Tyrone, not even from the state of Pennsylvania,” said Feathers. “We are calling him the main person in the operation.
“That’s a concern when you have a 17-year-old kid from New York City coming into Tyrone selling drugs,” concluded Feathers.
