Police Make 3 Arrests In Donora Drug Bust
DONORA (KDKA) -- Police trying to check on a parolee at a home in Washington County say they arrested three men accused of packaging heroin to sell.
The home, decorated for Halloween, does not stand out from its neighbors on Thompson Avenue in Donora, but it's where parole agents and police came looking for a parole violator Wednesday.
"They smelled burning marijuana," said Washington County District Attorney Eugene Vittone. "When they went to where the smell was coming from they found three individuals packaging heroin."
Things got pretty hectic, but under control in moments were Jobe Franks, Joseph Drayton and Michael Williams.
"The three people that were arrested, none of them have that address," said Vittone.
The home is owned by Franks' sister who said she didn't know what was going on in her basement, but when it was all totaled up, police recovered 3,400 stamp bags of suspected heroin, a large amount raw unpackaged, a baggie of cocaine, just under 3,9000 in cash and the tools to split the drugs up for sale.
"I have kids and it's a shame this happened," said Annie Menendez, a neighbor.
KDKA's John Shumway: "Does it surprise you?"
Menendez: "No, there's a lot of traffic in a few houses here on this block."
Vittone says the most significant part of the bust is that Drayton and Williams are both from Philadelphia.
"Anytime you can get into that network where it's coming from, that's a good thing," he said.
As for the man police were looking for in the first place, Donald Franks, he wasn't there when they arrived and is still out there somewhere wanted for a parole violation.
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