Cops: Tip leads to arrest of woman in Latrobe on drug charges

Latrobe police used a tip from an informant to arrest a Derry woman who had allegedly just returned from Pittsburgh with 10 bricks of suspected heroin to sell in the area.

Cherie A. Chapman, 30, was arrested Sunday after a traffic stop at 5:25 p.m. along Lincoln Avenue in Latrobe. She was charged with possession, manufacturing and delivery of a controlled substance, possession of heroin and possession of drug paraphernalia. She was arraigned before night court District Judge Charles Christner and ordered held in the county prison after failing to post $100,000 bail, pending a preliminary hearing before Unity District Judge Michael Mahady.

Latrobe Detective Michael Wigand reported in court documents police received a tip Thursday from an informant that Chapman, who lives in an apartment on West Second Avenue in Derry, was driving to Pittsburgh to purchase a large amount of heroin “to sell in the Greater Latrobe area.”

Wigand, a member of the county drug task force, said Chapman was subsequently placed under surveillance by task force members. On Sunday, Wigand reported police saw Chapman’s older blue Ford Fusion in a parking lot on the 1700 block of Lincoln Avenue and conducted a traffic stop when she pulled onto the street.

Police said a passenger in the car, Mark Barger, 30, also of Derry, had an arrest warrant for failing to pay numerous fines and failing to follow court-ordered terms of a work release sentence stemming from a 2017 assault case in Latrobe.

Wigand said Chapman refused consent to search the vehicle.

Police called Latrobe officer Robert Derk and K9 Zeus, who performed an exterior search and obtained probable cause to look inside the vehicle.

“Chapman continued yelling at officer Derk and Zeus and interfered with the search,” Wigand wrote in court documents.

Zeus alerted police to the rear driver’s side door area and rear passenger seat area where 500 glassine stamp bags stamped “NYQUIL” were hidden. A purse containing $782 was confiscated. Three additional stamp bags were recovered on the driver’s side floor, Wigand said.

Barger was detained on the bench warrants, police reported.