Two charged in seizure of heroin and meth in Scranton

  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.
Joseph Kohut, The Times-Tribune, Scranton, Pa.
·3 min read
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

May 1—A tip that a felon in Scranton secretly had a gun and a later slip of the suspect's tongue led to two arrests Thursday and the seizure of more than one pound of heroin, six ounces of methamphetamine and thousands of dollars in cash.

Javier Luis Correa, 39, 1408 Sanderson Ave., is not allowed a firearm because of a 2008 conviction for drug charges, according to a criminal complaint filed by officers of the city police's Street Crimes Unit.

On Thursday, Agent Joseph Harte and others from the state Board of Probation and Parole went to check on Correa's home after getting information that he had a gun.

Street Crime Unit Officers Jason Hyler, James Petrucci and Scott Benzeleski went to assist after Harte told them they found a 9mm handgun under his couch.

That was far from the only illegal thing kept in his home, police said. Correa indicated to police he had narcotics. City Officer Jason Gula and Trooper Frank Carito, task force officers assigned to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, also responded with other DEA agents, according to the complaint.

During the initial search of the home — which is shared by Correa's 29-year-old girlfriend, Mariela Vargas de Mendez — authorities found 57 grams of an "unknown rock-like substance" in a plastic tool box kept in a closet, sifters holding white, powdery residue and paraphernalia often used by drug dealers.

The substance they found will be sent to a state police laboratory for testing, according to the complaint. Benzeleski also found 50 grams of marijuana in a bedroom during the first search. Police also found cash totaling between $10,000 and $20,000.

Correa admitted the handgun was his and went with the police to their South Washington Avenue headquarters for an interview.

During the interview, authorities allowed Correa to call his girlfriend on the telephone. The couple conversed in Spanish. Correa did not know Carito speaks Spanish and understood what he was saying.

Correa asked Vargas de Mendez three times if the police had found "everything," according to the complaint. They hadn't, she replied, and Correa made reference to something "under the bed."

That brought the cops back to Sanderson Avenue. Vargas de Mendez gave them consent to search a second time.

In an upstairs bedroom, they found 10 bags of heroin tied together with a rubber band — known as a "bundle" — and three grams of meth in a pack of Newport cigarettes.

Benzeleski searched the basement and found some bullets for Correa's handgun. He also found, in Vargas de Mendez's purse, containers holding 174 grams of meth and 611 grams of heroin. Police took her into custody.

Correa is charged with several drug charges and a felony count of illegally possessing a firearm. Vargas de Mendez also faces drug charges.

Both were jailed Friday in Lackawanna County Prison in lieu of bail — $150,000 for Correa and $50,000 for Vargas de Mendez. They have preliminary hearings scheduled May 13.

Contact the writer: jkohut@timesshamrock.com, 570-348-9100, x5187; @jkohutTT on Twitter.

Recommended Stories

  • Former pastor looks to persuade skeptical evangelicals to get vaccinated for COVID-19

    A Christian theologian and former pastor looking to persuade skeptical evangelicals to get vaccinated for COVID-19 said Wednesday that a historic distrust of institutions was “weaponized” during the presidency of Donald Trump.

  • Mike Tindall reveals small daughters 'try to help' with newborn Lucas

    Mike and Zara Tindall recently welcomed their son Lucas into the world - on the bathroom floor.

  • Billionaire Developer and Philanthropist Eli Broad Dies: 'He Saw the Potential in Each of Us'

    Eli Broad gave millions to Los Angeles infrastructure, development, art and education

  • UK housing market 'on the boil' as prices rise

    UK house prices rose by 7.1% compared with a year ago, the Nationwide says, amid high demand from buyers.

  • New Jersey teacher curses at Black students, calls George Floyd ‘criminal’

    A New Jersey teacher has been removed from the virtual classroom after going a profanity-laced rant against his students about race, Black Lives Matter and George Floyd. Dickinson High School teacher Howard Zlotkin was instructing a lesson about climate change before the conversation turned to race, reports NBC New York. Dickinson High School senior Timmia Williams, 17, said Zlotkin became more irate as he yelled and cursed at students.

  • Minnesota reports 16 COVID-19 deaths and 1,877 infections

    Sixteen COVID-19 deaths were reported Friday in Minnesota along with 1,877 infections with the novel coronavirus that causes the respiratory disease. The daily figures raise Minnesota's totals to 7,144 COVID-19 deaths and 575,812 diagnosed infections in the pandemic — with the state on the apparent downside of a third wave of viral spread. The seven-day average positivity rate of COVID-19 ...

  • Woman who called police on Black delivery driver faces hate crime charge, CA cops say

    She used “hateful language disparaging people of color,” authorities said.

  • 100-year-old sturgeon one of the largest ever caught in the US, Michigan officials say

    Officials called it a “river monster.”

  • Texas voters head back to polls after congressman's death

    The widow of a Texas congressman who died after contracting COVID-19 carried Donald Trump's endorsement into a special election Saturday, while Democrats and GOP critics of the former president hoped voters would instead send a surprising message to the rest of the U.S. The race has drawn only modest attention beyond Texas' 6th Congressional District, which includes the booming corridor between Dallas and Fort Worth. Trump waited until just days before the election to endorse Susan Wright, a GOP activist and widow of the late Rep. Ron Wright, who in February became the first sitting member of Congress to die after being diagnosed with COVID-19.

  • Prosecutor probed over Capitol riot interview leaves post

    The former acting U.S. attorney in Washington, who was under investigation over an interview to CBS’ “60 Minutes” about the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, has left the Justice Department and can no longer be subject to any potential disciplinary action for the interview. Michael Sherwin is no longer an employee at the Department of Justice, agency spokesman Joshua Stueve said. Sherwin, who until recently was leading the investigation into the Jan. 6 riot, suggested during the interview that some of the rioters could face rarely used sedition charges, something he had suggested previously in several news conferences.

  • Mistakes You're Making When Growing Your Own Food

    Got into victory gardens during the pandemic? There’s more to good-quality, high-yielding plants than you may have thought. Here’s how to give your garden a glow up this year.

  • Former NFL player and Super Bowl champion drowns at pro fishing tournament in Texas

    A former NFL player who won a Super Bowl with Joe Namath drowned at a fishing tournament in Texas.

  • Next major war will be 'very different,' U.S. defense secretary says

    WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The United States needs to prepare for a potential future conflict bearing little resemblance to "the old wars" that have long consumed the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Friday in his first significant policy speech. Austin called for harnessing technological advances and better integrating military operations globally to "understand faster, decide faster and act faster." Critics say withdrawing from Afghanistan will not end the Asian country's internal conflict, extinguish the threat of terrorism or make experience from 20 years of counter-insurgency warfare irrelevant, as militant organizations like Islamic State spread around the world.

  • Colombia ups deployment of security forces to Cali amid violence

    Colombia has deployed more police and army units to Cali, its third-biggest city, in a bid to end disturbances and vandalism amid protests against a controversial tax reform, the defense minister said on Friday. Unions called strikes on Wednesday in Colombia's main cities to demand the government of President Ivan Duque withdraw the reform, which it presented to congress earlier this month as it tries to increase tax income. The most serious riots and vandalism took place on Wednesday and Thursday in Cali, capital of Colombia's Valle del Cauca province, with banks and government offices attacked, among other incidents.

  • Twisted Sister awarded $1.2m from Clive Palmer over copyright claim

    Australian billionaire Clive Palmer used a version of We're Not Gonna Take It when he ran for parliament.

  • What does Disneyland look like after 412 days closed? Take a look at joyous reopening

    Disneyland had only closed a handful of times before, including in 1963 on a national day of mourning for President John F. Kennedy.

  • Vaccine protects COVID-19 survivors against variants; virus' spike protein damages blood vessels

    The following is a roundup of some of the latest scientific studies on the novel coronavirus and efforts to find treatments and vaccines for COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus. In COVID-19 survivors, the Pfizer/BioNTech mRNA vaccine protects not only against the original virus strain but also against worrisome variants, two studies show. UK researchers analyzed immune responses after a single dose of the vaccine in 51 people, including 25 people previously infected with an early version of the novel coronavirus.

  • Beijing's campaign to rein in Tesla has begun, now experts say it has a limited time to sell cars before it gets canceled

    It's clear from state media that Beijing is trying to slow Tesla's growth to boost domestic rivals. Too bad Tesla desperately needs China's market.

  • Peru presidential front-runner Castillo rushed to clinic, suspends campaigning

    Peruvian front-running left-wing presidential candidate Pedro Castillo was rushed to a clinic in Lima on Thursday for "respiratory" illness, forcing him to suspend campaigning, the candidate's party said on social media. Castillo, a 51-year-old primary school teacher set to face right-wing candidate Keiko Fujimori in a runoff in early June, fell ill shortly after arriving in the capital following several days of campaigning in northern Peru. Castillo's political party, Peru Libre, announced the situation on Twitter but did not immediately provide further details.

  • 90 people found in home as cops investigate kidnapping report, Texas police say

    Some of the people found during the surprising discovery may have COVID-19, police say.