A search of a 14th Avenue home turned up a suspected drug dealer just out of state prison, $18,000 in heroin, cash and four handguns, according to police.
Brandon Lamont Thompkins, 28, was taken into custody after the 5 p.m. Sunday raid at 1116 14th Ave. by Altoona police, members of the Blair County Drug Task Force and agents with the state Attorney General's Office's Bureau of Narcotics Investigation.
Thompkins is considered a large-scale drug dealer, and his arrest was preceded by a short investigation that culminated with a search warrant for the home where Thompkins was living with his wife and about four others, police said.
Police contend the 600 packets of heroin and digital scales were found in a part of the house where Thompkins and his wife stayed. Four handguns - a .38-caliber, a .45-caliber, a 9 mm and a .44 magnum - were seized in the raid, police said.
Thompkins is charged with possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance, possession of heroin, illegal possession of a firearm by a convict and possession of drug paraphernalia.
He was lodged in Blair County Prison on $50,000 cash bail and a state parole and probation detainer, according to police.
Thompkins was released from state prison about two months ago after serving a seven-year stretch on drug distribution charges, Blair County District Attorney Richard Consiglio said.
Thompkins was the former No. 2 man in a major crack cocaine ring spanning Blair and Cambria counties and was arrested along with Philadelphia drug dealer Akil Johnson in April 2004.
Johnson, 32, is serving a 42- to 98-year sentence, and Thompkins was sentenced in January 2006 to seven to 14 years in prison, records show.
A preliminary hearing on Thompkins' latest charges is scheduled for Dec. 5 at Central Court.
Mirror Staff Writer Greg Bock is 946-7458.
