Police seize drugs, cash in Masontown raid
MASONTOWN – Charges are pending against a 42-year-old Masontown man after police raided his home uncovering a hoard of cash and drugs Thursday. Under the direction of Lt. Kyle W. Sneddon, who heads the Fayette County Drug Task Force on the southern end of the county, officers raided a home on Cedar Street in Masontown.
According to Fayette County District Attorney Nancy D. Vernon, police found $2,500 in cash, two bags of marijuana, Oxycontin, a digital scale, brass knuckles, suspected moonshine, drug paraphernalia and other prescription medication all stored in a safe inside the home.
The raid, conducted by the task force, the Masontown Police Department and the state police Auto Theft Task Force, was the eighth drug bust in the last five weeks in the county.
Additionally, police seized an all-terrain-vehicle from the home that was reported stolen out of Uniontown, Sneddon said.
Sneddon said the bust was “one of many ongoing investigations across the county,” and Vernon said the seizure is part of the continued increase in the county’s crackdown on drug dealing in the region.
“This was part of our stepped-up efforts to combat drugs, and I have to thank the Masontown Police Department and their Chief Richard Barron for being alert,” Vernon said.
Barron said his department is always monitoring drug activity in Masontown and will work with the task force whenever possible.
“The suspect in this case has been on our radar for about two months,” Barron said.
In the last five weeks, the task force, in conjunction with local law enforcement and the state police, have netted more than $49,000 in cash, more than two kilograms of cocaine, four bags of crack cocaine, more than a pound of marijuana, dozens of marijuana seeds, liquid PCP, Oxycontin and other suspected drugs as well as 11 guns and hundreds of rounds of ammunition.
Of the eight drug seizures conducted recently, seven were made in Uniontown.
Anyone can report drug activity by calling the task force at 724-425-1768.