2 pounds of cocaine found during traffic stop on Pennsylvania Turnpike
Troopers found nearly two pounds of cocaine after a traffic stop on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, the Westmoreland County District Attorney's Office announced on Thursday.
The district attorney's office said a state police trooper and his K-9 were sitting on Interstate 76 in Donegal Township on Tuesday when a vehicle drove by with a New York registration and "excessive tint" on its windows.
As the trooper pulled out to conduct a traffic stop, the DA's office said he noticed the vehicle changed lanes and began following another vehicle at an unsafe distance.
The trooper put on his emergency lights and sirens and pulled over the vehicle, using a West Virginia license to identify the driver as 35-year-old Ratique Wilson.
After Wilson denied police consent to search his vehicle, the district attorney's office said a drug detection K-9 was deployed and alerted troopers to the possible presence of drugs.
Authorities executed a search warrant, and troopers found a kilogram of cocaine inside, the DA's office said.
Wilson was remanded to the Westmoreland County Prison after failing to post bail. He's facing several drug-related charges and several traffic violations, prosecutors said.
It's the latest drug bust on the stretch of the Pennsylvania Turnpike that runs through Westmoreland County.
Last month, more than 40,000 baggies of suspected fentanyl with an estimated street value of $80,000 were seized along I-76 in Hempfield Township.
In August, troopers said they searched a car and found 8 kilograms, or about 17 pounds, of cocaine. A few weeks before that, police said they found 37 pounds of cocaine in another car.