A 42-year-old Scranton man sold methamphetamine to a confidential informant and left drugs within reach of a 3-year-old child, police said.<\/p>\n
Members of the Pennsylvania State Police Troop R Vice Unit met Friday with a confidential informant regarding the person\u2019s involvement with Michael Patrick Reid, according to a criminal complaint.<\/p>\n
The informant told troopers they show up at Reid\u2019s residence \u2014 720 Stafford Ave., Apt. 8 \u2014 unannounced because he doesn\u2019t like to communicate over the phone when talking about drug sales, police said.<\/p>\n
Investigators established surveillance in the area of 720 Stafford Ave. before the informant exited an undercover vehicle and walked to the rear of the property, according to the criminal complaint.<\/p>\n
Troopers then observed the informant leave the building, get back in the vehicle and hand investigators methamphetamine purchased from Reid, police said.<\/p>\n
While executing a search warrant at the apartment, troopers spotted Reid in the bathroom area with another male, Aaron Mellem, according to the criminal complaint.<\/p>\n
Investigators also encountered Brooke Murphy and a 3-year-old child lying on the floor, police said.<\/p>\n
Reid told investigators he threw approximately 3.5 grams of methamphetamine into the toilet because he was afraid the police were knocking on his door, troopers said.<\/p>\n
Investigators found a clear plastic baggie containing methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia inside Murphy\u2019s purse in the bathroom, according to the criminal complaint.<\/p>\n
Reid informed investigators that he wasn\u2019t selling\u00a0anything big, just a little, police said.<\/p>\n
Investigators seized approximately 1.5 grams of fentanyl, approximately 3.5 grams of suspected powder cocaine, approximately 2.5 grams of suspected methamphetamine, 43 suspected Xanax pills, a digital scale, bulk packaging material, and a burned glass smoking device, according to the criminal complaint.<\/p>\n
All the items were within reach of the 3-year-old, who was placed into the custody of a family friend, police said.<\/p>\n
Reid, Murphy and Mellem all admitted to being under the influence of narcotics at the scene, investigators said.<\/p>\n
Troopers also found glass smoking devices, straws with residue, and clear plastic bags with drug residue within 10 to 15 feet of the child\u2019s reach.<\/p>\n
Police charged Reid with possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance, possession of a controlled substance, possession of drug paraphernalia, tampering with physical evidence and endangering the welfare of children.<\/p>\n
As of Monday, Reid remained at Lackawanna County Prison in lieu of $100,000 bail. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for June 25 at 9:45 a.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 42-year-old Scranton man sold methamphetamine to a confidential informant and left drugs within reach of a 3-year-old…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7350,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[202,201,182,139,28,178,180,179,181],"class_list":["post-219823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-lackawanna-county","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-top-stories-stt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219823"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219823\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}