Metro

Two Philadelphia men were taken into custody after a traffic stop led police to discover more than $22,000 worth of narcotics in their vehicle.

Blair County Drug Task Force and Altoona police officers were conducting surveillance in the area of 17th Avenue and 14th Street on Thursday when they saw a Buick LaCrosse with heavily tinted windows and conducted a traffic stop, according to a post on APD’s Facebook page.

During the stop, officers spoke with the Buick’s driver, Tyrone Chase Jr., 29, and passenger, Ruben Almando Rivera, 30, both of Philadelphia. Officers noted Chase and Rivera gave conflicting versions of events and police asked them to exit the vehicle, the post stated.

Officers deployed the department’s K-9 officer, who conducted an open-air sniff of the vehicle and alerted to the presence of controlled substances. A search of the vehicle turned up about 585 bags of heroin/fentanyl with a street value of $11,700, one gram of loose fentanyl valued at $500, 100 grams of crack cocaine with a street value of $10,000 and about $1,274 in cash, the post stated.

Chase and Rivera were arraigned Friday by Magisterial District Judge Matthew Dunio, with each facing three felony counts of possession with intent to deliver and single misdemeanor counts of possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia. Chase was also charged with two summary traffic offenses.

Chase and Rivera were remanded to the Blair County Prison in lieu of their respective $400,000 bails. They are scheduled for separate preliminary hearings in front of Magisterial District Judge Benjamin F. Jones on June 25.