New York man sentenced for cocaine possession in North Huntingdon traffic stop
A New York man pleaded guilty Wednesday to having cocaine hidden inside a car that police pulled over in North Huntingdon in February.
Fernando A. Rivera-Saldivar, 24, of Bronx, was sentenced to six to 23 months in the Westmoreland County Prison, where he has been held since his arrest on drug and identity theft charges. He was ordered to serve two years of probation after the jail term.
Rivera-Saldivar and the driver of the car were arrested after officers found eight packages of cocaine hidden inside the console and six cell phones which had been purchased using fraudulent identities and credit cards at Walmart stores in Mechanicsburg, Hempfield and North Huntingdon, according to court papers.
Police said they pulled the car over after it was driving erratically on Route 30 without headlights on about 9 p.m. Rivera-Saldivar and the driver, Dario E. Jansen-Kelly, of Bronx, told police they were headed to an auto action in Cincinnati.
Charges against Jansen-Kelly have since been withdrawn.
Renatta Signorini is a TribLive reporter covering breaking news, crime, courts and Jeannette. She has been working at the Trib since 2005. She can be reached at rsignorini@triblive.com.
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