Three men are behind bars on drug charges after police said they found about $20,000 worth of ecstasy, cocaine and methamphetamine hidden inside a home in the Mt. Vernon section of New Kensington.
Andre Butler, 34, and Shawn Taylor, 47, both of Pittsburgh, and Dennis Corbett, 33, of New Kensington, each face five felony charges related to conspiring to obtain, manufacture or sell the controlled substances, court records show. They also were charged with misdemeanor counts of possession of drugs and drug paraphernalia.
All three were arraigned Thursday before District Judge Frank J. Pallone Jr. and were being held in the Westmoreland County Prison.
None could post bond immediately.
Pallone set a cash bond of $50,000 for Butler and $100,000 each for Taylor and Corbett, records show.
‘A significant bust’
The suspects were inside a house on Riverview Drive shortly before sundown Wednesday when state parole agents and local police arrived with plans to arrest a recently released convict they suspected would be there, according to New Kensington police Chief Robert Deringer.
State parole officials had stopped by the New Kensington police station earlier in the day and requested help from local officers to make the planned arrest, Deringer said.
“So, they went up and they knocked on the door, the person they were looking for answered, they arrested him,” Deringer said, “then parole (officers) asked them if he would give consent to a search, which he did.”
During the initial search, officials found a gun tucked under a mattress and a small amount of marijuana, Deringer said.
Vice detectives then obtained and served a warrant for a more thorough search of the same house.
They seized more than 100 ecstasy pills and “a significant amount” of heroin, powder cocaine and methamphetamine, Deringer said.
The chief said that his officers “assist parole all the time, but this is the most significant bust that I have seen in a long time with the amount of drugs and all that, especially up there in Mt. Vernon.”
It’s unclear which of the three suspects was the initial target of the parole officials.
All three are scheduled to return to court for preliminary hearings on Sept. 19.
