Lower Burrell police make second crack-related arrest in 8 days

Lower Burrell police said a traffic stop last Thursday turned up nearly a half-ounce of crack cocaine and resulted in the city’s second crack-related arrest in eight days.

“For us, this is unusual. Crack in this amount hasn’t been seen in Lower Burrell for 20 years,” said police Chief Tim Weitzel.

Police charged Anthony M. Howell, 32, of Fifth Avenue in Arnold, with cocaine possession and possession with intent to sell the drug following Thursday’s traffic stop along Route 56.

Police said Howell, a rear-seat passenger, asked the woman driving the car to hide a baggie containing crack and another containing marijuana. Police said they found 13 grams of crack in the car, and Howell had about $1,700 in cash on him.

Howell was being held in the Westmoreland County Prison on $75,000 bond. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for May.

Howell’s arrest came eight days after police arrested a New Kensington man following a March 28 traffic stop in which they said they found 15.5 grams of suspected crack cocaine. Luther Boyd, 38, was being held in the Westmoreland County Prison on $50,000 bond in connection with that case.

Weitzel said some people mistakenly believe cocaine has been largely replaced by heroin and fentanyl, but that’s not the case.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse reports that cocaine use has remained relatively stable since 2009. In 2014, an estimated 1.5 million people age 12 and older used cocaine in the past month. Adults between 18 to 25 have a higher rate of cocaine use than any other age group, with 1.4 percent of young adults reporting that they used it the past month.

“It’s not just used in the inner city anymore,” Weitzel said.