Charleroi K9 Blitz assists Monessen police, state agents in drug arrest

Monessen police and investigators from the state attorney general’s office needed an assist from Charleroi’s police dog officer Blitz when they searched a city man’s home and SUV for drugs Friday while executing a search warrant.

Blitz and his handler, William Gardner, were called in to assist in searching the home and vehicle of Jermaine A. Majors on McKee Avenue. Blitz and his handler helped locate about 27 grams of powdered crack cocaine plus another 4 grams of cocaine inside a Saturn SUV parked outside, according to Monessen officer Jeffrey Smaracheck.

When officers initially executed a search warrant about 11:30 a.m. Friday, they found $1,400 in a pants pocket during a pat-down, a small amount of marijuana in a bedroom and two glass smoking pipes, Smaracheck said.

Smaracheck said Majors denied there was contraband in the SUV. However, Blitz alerted officers “to a positive presence of narcotic odor that was emanating inside the vehicle.”

Hidden on the passenger side floor, officers located a digital scale and suspected cocaine, Smaracheck reported. Once placed under arrest and questioned, Smaracheck said Majors “admitted the cocaine was his.”

Majors was arraigned before night court District Judge Jason Buczak on multiple charges of illegal possession of a controlled substance; possession, manufacturing and delivery of a controlled substance; and possession of drug paraphernalia. He was ordered held in the Westmoreland County Prison after failing to post $50,000 bail.