Forty people were collared in the area\u2019s latest drug bust including street level dealers from the Tyrone area and other parts of Blair County.
\nThe arrests were the culmination of a five-month investigation and included search warrants executed earlier this week and the issuing of arrest warrants and arraignments of suspects yesterday.
\nAgent Randy Feathers of the Blair County Drug Task Force said, \u201cTyrone (Police) are doing a wonderful job.\u201d He deferred questions about the Tyrone aspects of the case to Police Chief Joseph Beachem.
\nThe chief indicated the latest bust is significant in making headway against the drug problem in town. At the same time, he also recognized the enormity of the problem and talked about his department\u2019s resolve in dealing with it.
\n\u201cFor the last couple months we have been doing buys with confidential informants which led up to today,\u201d Beachem told The Daily Herald yesterday. \u201cOn Tuesday night, we learned Sarah Leeper was holding what we term \u2018weight\u2019 – a decent amount of heroin. We had our informant get the information we needed and we had a previous buy on her. We watched the deal go down at Bressler\u2019s store. The informant had a preset signal to let us know if the deal went through.
\n\u201cWhen we got that signal, we arrested her on Hamilton Avenue across from Bressler\u2019s,\u201d said Beachem. \u201cThe informant purchased four bags of heroin for $120 and we found another five bags in her left sock.\u201d
\nAn even more significant amount of heroin was discovered at another location in Tyrone after authorities developed and executed a search warrant for a residence at the Tyrone Townhouses on Wednesday night.
\n\u201cWhen we got there, our information told us the heroin was kept in a safe,\u201d said Beachem.
\nHe said authorities were let into the apartment immediately after they knocked on the door.
\n\u201cMiss (Kimberly Ann) Carroll saw who we were, we identified ourselves, she stated, \u2018you don\u2019t have to tear the whole house up, it\u2019s in the safe, I know why you are here,\u2019\u201d said Beachem.
\nHe said the whole residence was searched and several needles and empty packets of heroin were found. Inside the safe, police discovered 80 packets of heroin with a street value of $3,200.
\nBeachem said prescription pills, cash and guns were also discovered. He said the other suspects were apprehended through intelligence which was gathered through the informant buys which were made over the course of the several months of the investigation.
\n\u201cObviously, this entire county, this entire state has a drug problem,\u201d said Beachem. \u201cWhen we target street level dealers, which a lot of these people were, we\u2019re hoping to eliminate and reduce property crimes such as burglary, maybe take some violent people off the streets (and) eliminate and reduce robberies.\u201d
\n\u201cThe \u2018h\u2019 packets, the 80 bags which were seized, that is a significant amount of heroin,\u201d said Beachem. \u201cWe want people to understand we are targeting people from the bottom up.\u201d
\nHe said the Drug Task Force is a great tool for the department. Beachem also cited the efforts made by state, county and local authorities and the efforts of his own staff.
\n\u201cWe are going to keep on keeping on, it\u2019s a daunting task,\u201d said Beachem. \u201cI know it\u2019s a problem, we are not going to turn the other cheek on it.\u201d
\nPennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett, along with local law enforcement officials made the announcement about the busts in Tyrone and other parts of Blair County at a press conference yesterday in Altoona. Agents from the Attorney General\\’s Bureau of Narcotics Investigation (BNI) and nearly 80 Blair County Drug Task Force members and police officer captured or issued arrests warrants for as many as 40 suspected drug dealers.
\nAccording to a press release from his office, Corbett said 21 of the defendants are charged with dealing heroin and 12 are charged with selling cocaine. The remaining defendants are charged with selling marijuana and the prescription pain killer Oxycontin as well as Dolophine, the generic methadone and Vicoden.
\nCorbett said undercover agents made more than 100 drug purchases during the course of the investigation and were also assisted by information forwarded from Blair Counties\\’ \\”Push Out the Pushers\\” hotline (814-693-3020). He said information gathered from street-level investigations, included where the drug dealers obtain their drugs and was used to target mid -to upper-level drug dealers by BNI agents and Attorney General drug prosecutors.
\nAccording to the press release about the bust, Corbett said, \u201cAs Attorney General, my number one priority is fighting illegal drug distribution throughout Pennsylvania. The work of the Blair County Drug Task Force is a model that we will use throughout the state. I commend the men and women of the task force who work so hard to make Blair County a better place to live, work and raise a family.\\”
\nCorbett thanked police departments from Tyrone, Bellwood Allegheny Township, Altoona, Blair Township, Duncansville, Freedom Township, Greenfield Township, Hollidaysburg, Logan Township, Martinsburg, North Woodbury Township, Pennsylvania State Police Troop G, Penn State University\/Altoona Campus Police, Roaring Spring and Williamsburg, along with the Altoona Regional Health System Police, the Altoona School District Police, the Blair County District Attorney\\’s Office and the Blair County Sheriff\\’s Office for their assistance with ongoing task force investigations.
\nThe suspects in the case were taken to the Frankstown Armory for processing and were arraigned before Magisterial District Judges Fred Miller and Ken Garman.
\n(Editors note: See box on page 2 for list of Tyrone-based drug suspects.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Forty people were collared in the area\u2019s latest drug bust including street level dealers from the Tyrone area and other parts of Blair County. The arrests were the culmination of a five-month investigation and included search warrants executed earlier this week and the issuing of arrest warrants and arraignments of suspects yesterday. Agent Randy Feathers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43111\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}