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Charged

A Russell man accused of receiving bath salts by mail was arrested Monday in Erie.

Michael B. Baxter, 32, of 447 N. Main St., Russell, was charged with possession with intent to deliver; possession of a controlled substance; and conspiracy – possession with intent to deliver.

Baxter was arraigned before District Justice Thomas Carney on Tuesday and taken to the Erie County Jail after failing to post $50,000 bail.

According to a press release from the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office, “Warren County detectives received information that Michael Baxter would be receiving a package containing bath salts at a post office box in Erie.”

“We had received information via our ‘Illegal Drug Hotline’ about Mr. Baxter’s illegal drug involvement and passed on the intelligence to Erie County,” Warren County District Attorney Rob Greene said. “This is a good example of how we are working with the local community and other law enforcement agencies to go after drug dealers with contacts to Warren County.”

Officials confirmed that Baxter did have a post office box at the Downtown Erie Post Office on State Street.

“A package arrived at the post office for Michael Baxter,” according to the press release. “The sender was from Hong Kong.”

“On Sept. 26, Baxter arrived at the post office to retrieve the package and was taken into custody,” the press release said. “Subsequently, a search warrant was executed on the package and it was found to contain approximately 86.3 grams of bath salts. The bath salts have a street value of approximately $17,260.”

The Office of Attorney General’s Bureau of Narcotics Investigations was assisted by Warren County detectives, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the City of Erie Bureau of Police Vice Unit.

A preliminary hearing is scheduled in Erie County Court for 9 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 5.

Baxter’s case will remain in the Erie County court system, according to Greene.

“The WCDTF has made it very difficult for drug dealers to operate in Warren County and we have formed many alliances with other state and federal law enforcement agencies to go after the larger drug dealers – ‘kingpins’ – that try to peddle their drugs in Warren County,” Greene said. “This is a never-ending battle in which we can only attempt to slow down the supply of illegal drugs coming into Warren County.”

Anyone with information about illegal drug activity is encouraged to contact the Warren County Drug Task Force, Chief County Detective Dee Klakamp at 728-3462 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-832-7463. For more information, visit the www.WarrenCountyDA.org website.

Bath salts have been on the task force’s list for years and the efforts have made an impact.

“The past couple of years, the Warren County Drug Task Force made a concerted effort to go after bath salts coming into Warren and we have greatly reduced the supply and use in Warren County,” Greene said. “The predominant illegal drug issue in Warren currently is heroin (similar to the growing epidemic nationwide) and opiate based (similar to heroin) prescription pain pills, which we are now focused on, along with other ‘hardcore’ drugs like crack, cocaine and meth.”

Enforcement isn’t the only tool available to combat drug abuse.

“The other side of the coin is the demand for the illegal drugs, which we are actively trying to reduce with programs such as Drug Treatment Court, the DARE program, the Sheriff’s work program for inmates, etc. There is a concerted effort by everyone in the law enforcement, the court system and the prison to help those with addictions who truly want to change their lives… and for those that don’t, well we have a remedy for them too,” he said. “Warren County should be proud of the local criminal justice system and the efforts that we have all made in the past few years in pulling our resources to help make Warren County a little safer in a world that seems to be getting darker all around us.”

Charged

A Warren woman has been charged with driving under the influence of drugs in a school zone with children in the vehicle.

Lacy A. Honey, 38, of 412 W. Fifth Ave. faces charges including: two counts of DUI – controlled substance – first; three counts of endangering welfare of children; and summary traffic violations.

According to Warren County Sheriff’s Office deputies, a patrol vehicle with its lights activated was parked off the berm of the eastbound lane of Route 6 in the school zone at Sheffield Area Elementary Middle High School starting at 6:30 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 7.

After 7:30 a.m. a black car was seen “swerving all over the road” and almost striking the parked cruiser, according to the affidavit of probable cause. In addition to the driver, the car carried three juvenile passengers, officers wrote.

The car almost struck guide rails and the driver did not signal as the vehicle turned into the unloading zone at the school, according to the affidavit. The vehicle returned to Route 6 without coming to a complete stop at a stop sign and headed west in the eastbound lane.

Officers said the vehicle crossed both the center line and the white ‘fog’ line and was going 72 miles per hour in a 55 zone.

After stopping the car, a deputy wrote, “I observed that she was under the influence of a controlled substance. She was slurring her speech, had impaired coordination and had dilated pupils.”

“Honey could barely walk” and she said she could not perform balance-based field sobriety tests, according to officers. After conducting gaze nystagmus tests on Honey, the deputy placed her under arrest, according to the document.

A blood sample tested at NMS Labs determined a concentration of 41 nanograms of oxycodone per milliliter of Honey’s blood, according to the affidavit.

An oxycodone concentration of 10 nanograms per milliliter is considered a positive result, according to NMS Labs standards.

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