Two men are behind bars after law enforcement officers seized 40 grams of cocaine and $4,700 in drug-trafficking proceeds from a South Scranton residence, Lackawanna County District Attorney Brian Gallagher said in a media release.<\/p>\n
Jose Arcadi Cruz-Rivera, 55, faces two felony charges of possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance and related charges. Leonardo Guzman Caban, 33, is charged with evading arrest and tampering with evidence.<\/p>\n
On Monday, investigators raided a residence at 1513 Pittston Ave. During the search, Caban fled into the house to avoid arrest, according to the release.<\/p>\n
Investigators pursued Caban into a bathroom, where they spotted him attempting to flush narcotics down the toilet.<\/p>\n
He was taken into custody and allegedly admitted he had attempted to destroy the drugs to avoid arrest.<\/p>\n
Investigators searched Cruz-Rivera\u2019s bedroom, where they found cash, cocaine, a fentanyl kit and documents linking him to the residence.<\/p>\n
Detectives also recovered about\u00a0 34 grams of cocaine, a digital scale, drug-packaging materials and other paraphernalia consistent with the distribution of controlled substances in the home.<\/p>\n
In total, investigators seized about 39.5 grams of cocaine and recovered about $4,701 in cash during the investigation.<\/p>\n
Officers took Cruz-Rivera into custody during a subsequent traffic stop, where they recovered $1,701 in cash involved in a controlled purchase, according to the release.<\/p>\n
Cruz-Rivera remains in Lackawanna County Prison in lieu of $75,000 bail. Caban remains there in lieu of $25,000 bail.<\/p>\n
Both have preliminary hearings before District Judge Sean McGraw \u2014 Cruz-Rivera on July 2 and Caban on July 6.<\/p>\n
The arrests were the result of a joint investigation conducted by the Lackawanna County District Attorney\u2019s Drug Taskforce and the Pennsylvania State Police Troop R Vice Unit.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur drug taskforce is focused on eradicating drug trafficking and drug dealers from our neighborhoods. Drug dealing brings crime, violence, and addiction into our streets and we will not tolerate it. We are committed to making Lackawanna County safer for families, children, and businesses by aggressively targeting those who sell drugs,\u201d Gallagher said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two men are behind bars after law enforcement officers seized 40 grams of cocaine and $4,700 in drug-trafficking…\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],"class_list":["post-227269","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"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227269","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=227269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227269\/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=227269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}