Police arrest Philadelphia man accused of bringing deadly opioid by train to Latrobe

A Philadelphia man accused of trafficking crack cocaine and a highly potent opioid is in the Westmoreland County jail following his arrest Wednesday night, shortly after he arrived in Latrobe via Amtrak.

Latrobe police, Westmoreland County detectives and agents of the state Attorney General’s Office combined efforts to take Brendaon Fuentes, 23, into custody after learning he was traveling by train from Philadelphia to Latrobe.

According to police, Fuentes was seen carrying two plastic bags as he left the train platform and got into a pickup truck parked in a nearby lot.

The bags contained 1.05 ounce of carfentanil and an ounce of crack cocaine, investigators said.

According to the Justice Department, carfentanil is a synthetic opioid that is meant for tranquilizing elephants and other large mammals. It’s 10,000 times more potent than morphine and 100 times more potent than fentanyl — which can be lethal at the 2-milligram range.

“A granule-size of this narcotic — similar to a granule of sand — is powerful enough to kill someone,” Westmoreland County District Attorney Nicole Ziccarelli said of carfentanil. “By intercepting these lethal drugs, many lives will be saved.”

Latrobe police Chief Richard Bosco said investigators learned from a “concerned individual” about a suspect bringing the drugs into the area.

“He had been known to be here before and was supposed to be coming back,” Bosco said. “We started working with Amtrak police, trying to identify who was coming to and from the Latrobe and Greensburg area by train.”

Three Latrobe officers were among the law enforcement contingent conducting surveillance on the Latrobe station, awaiting the arrival of the train from Philadelphia at about 8 p.m.

Police said drug paraphernalia was in plain view when they conducted a traffic stop of the pickup truck.

Authorities said a police dog alerted to the presence of narcotics in the plastic bags Fuentes was seen carrying. Executing a search warrant, investigators said they retrieved cocaine and carfentanil from the bags.

The drugs were wrapped in plastic shrink wrap, along with numerous bars of soap, and covered with Vicks VapoRub in an attempt to conceal the odor from a police dog, police said.

Fuentes was arraigned Thursday and was denied bail.

“This arrest not only disrupts the flow of illegal drugs, but also sends a strong message that we will not tolerate such activities in our community,” Bosco said.

He said a second suspect, a man who was in the pickup truck, was detained as part of an ongoing investigation.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday lauded the collaborative multi-agency effort “to close a cross-state trafficking pipeline. Dealers of deadly synthetic opioids value dollars over the lives of the people they profit from.”