SCRANTON, LACKAWANNA CO. (WOLF) \u2014 A months-long narcotics investigation in Scranton has led to the arrests of a Scranton man accused of selling cocaine and crack cocaine and a Wilkes-Barre woman facing drug possession charges.<\/p>\n
The Lackawanna County District Attorney’s Office announced the arrests of Kenneth Rivera Otero, 26, of Scranton, and Kaya Zdanowicz, 26, of Wilkes-Barre, following a joint investigation involving the Lackawanna County Drug Task Force, the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Scranton Field Office, the Pennsylvania State Police Troop R Vice Unit and the Scranton Police Street Crimes Unit.<\/p>\n
According to investigators, Rivera Otero was the focus of a months-long investigation into the distribution of cocaine and crack cocaine in Scranton.<\/p>\n
Authorities said investigators used a confidential informant to complete two controlled purchases of cocaine and crack cocaine from Rivera Otero during July and August. The transactions were monitored and recorded as part of the investigation.<\/p>\n
On Aug. 3, investigators conducted another controlled purchase before taking Rivera Otero into custody. Police said he was found carrying $421 in cash, including pre-recorded buy money, and a cellphone investigators believe was used in the alleged drug trafficking operation.<\/p>\n
Following the arrest, investigators executed a search warrant at a residence on Crown Circle Drive, Skyview Park Apartments, in South Scranton.<\/p>\n
During the search, authorities said they seized approximately $2,989 in cash, including confidential buy money, a digital scale with suspected cocaine residue, a strainer allegedly used in the manufacture of crack cocaine, Chore Boy, mannitol powder commonly used as a cutting agent, packaging materials associated with drug distribution and documents linking Rivera Otero to the residence.<\/p>\n
Investigators also said Rivera Otero admitted to the drug sale that occurred on the day of his arrest during a post-arrest interview.<\/p>\n
Rivera Otero is charged with:<\/p>\n
Two counts of delivery of a controlled substance.Two counts of criminal use of a communication facility.Two counts of possession of a controlled substance.Two counts of possession of drug paraphernalia.<\/p>\n
Authorities also arrested Kaya Zdanowicz, who investigators said was found in possession of a glass pipe used to smoke crack cocaine and a metal canister containing cocaine residue.<\/p>\n
Zdanowicz is charged with possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SCRANTON, LACKAWANNA CO. (WOLF) \u2014 A months-long narcotics investigation in Scranton has led to the arrests of a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":258979,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[178,180,179],"class_list":["post-258978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258978","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=258978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258978\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}