Police: Man jailed after selling heroin during string of overdoses
A city man arrested after selling suspected heroin “and/or fetanyl” to a police informant in June was arraigned on additional charges Tuesday and jailed in lieu of $550,000 bail.
Wayne S. Davidson, 24, 315 Center St., was arrested on June 29, which coincides with a string of over 50 overdoses that occurred in the region from June 28 to 30 and in which laced heroin was suspected, but police have yet to make a connection between Davidson’s arrest and the overdoses.
“The suspected heroin is identical in color, consistency and packaging as heroin and/or fentanyl,” Lycoming County Detective C. McCormack wrote in the affidavit, referring to heroin found on Davidson’s person and what he sold to the informant.
Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that is used to lace heroin to increase the batch and make it stronger, has been used in in the drug illegally sold throughout the county before, the affidavit said.
“There have been numerous confirmed cases in Lycoming County with suspected heroin containing additional drugs other than heroin,” McCormack wrote. “Most of the combinations of drugs included heroin and fentanyl.”
The district attorney’s Narcotics Enforcement Unit met with the informant on June 28 and had him contact Davidson to set up a purchase of heroin. Davidson sold 12 bags of heroin to the informant, who then turned over the drugs to detectives, according to an affidavit.
On June 29, detectives again had the informant call Davidson and ask to purchase 20 bags of heroin. After arriving at the designated meeting place, officers attempted to make contact with Davidson who tried to evade them on foot before he was arrested, according to the affidavit.
On Davidsons person were the 20 bags of heroin he intended to sell to the informant.
After Davidson’s was arrested, detectives were given consent by his girlfriend, with whom he lived, to search her home. During the search, a fully loaded handgun was found that Davidson had allegedly stolen from a man in Riverside.
Davidson was charged with three counts of intent to deliver a controlled substance, two counts of criminal use of a communication facility, two counts of possession of a controlled substance, two counts of possession of drug paraphernalia, and receiving stolen property.
Davidson will have a preliminary hearing on July 27.