{"id":50560,"date":"2025-12-03T00:27:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T00:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/50560\/"},"modified":"2025-12-03T00:27:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T00:27:08","slug":"police-reported-finding-drugs-in-bathroom-pipes-after-he-flushed-them-now-hes-going-to-prison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/50560\/","title":{"rendered":"Police reported finding drugs in bathroom pipes after he flushed them. Now he\u2019s going to prison."},"content":{"rendered":"

The target of a drug investigation in Palmer Township<\/a> pleaded guilty Tuesday and was sentenced to four and a half to nine years in state prison, prosecutors announced.<\/p>\n

Ricardo Sylvester, 42, was the focus of an ongoing investigation when authorities served a search warrant Jan. 26, 2024, at his South Greenwood Avenue home, according to a news release from Northampton County District Attorney Stephen Baratta\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

Sylvester was present for the search, authorities said. Investigators found the toilet lid in a bathroom had been removed and there were several small rubber bands scattered on the floor, the release states.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was determined that, upon the police\u2019s entry, Sylvester had attempted to dispose of narcotics by flushing them down the toilet,\u201d Baratta\u2019s office said in the release Tuesday. \u201cDetectives successfully retrieved plastic bags containing crack cocaine and heroin from the pipes connected to the bathroom.\u201d<\/p>\n

The search, led by the Easton Police Department Special Response Unit, turned up additional small packages of cocaine and a large quantity of heroin, according to the release.<\/p>\n

Sylvester went to trial Monday on misdemeanor and felony drug counts, the DA\u2019s office said. Upon the close of the prosecution\u2019s case Tuesday, Sylvester pleaded guilty before Northampton County Common Pleas Court Judge Paula Roscioli to felony drug possession with intent to deliver.<\/p>\n

The judge immediately sentenced him to a state prison term of 54 to 108 months, Baratta\u2019s office said.<\/p>\n

Easton police Detective Joseph Arredondo led the investigation, and the case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Derek Richmond.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The target of a drug investigation in Palmer Township pleaded guilty Tuesday and was sentenced to four and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50561,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154],"class_list":{"0":"post-50560","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bethlehem","8":"tag-bethlehem","9":"tag-bethlehem-headlines","10":"tag-bethlehem-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50560","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=50560"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50560\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}