Forrest Van Liew, 41, and Tavien Aurandt, 20, were each arraigned before Magisterial District Judge Benjamin F. Jones on two felony counts of possession with intent to deliver, single felony counts of conspiracy possession with intent to deliver, two misdemeanor counts of possession of a controlled substance, possession of drug paraphernalia and a misdemeanor count of tampering with evidence.

Aurandt also faces a felony count of escape and single misdemeanor counts of possession of a firearm prohibited, making offensive weapons and evading arrest.

Aurandt and Van Liew were remanded to the Blair County Prison in lieu of their respective $250,000 bails.

Altoona police performed a traffic stop Saturday on a Nissan Sentra along Broad Avenue after watching it leave a residence along the 1900 block of Fifth Avenue and make two traffic violations. When officers made contact with those inside the vehicle, they saw Van Liew with a plastic bag on his lap, which he appeared to be attempting to conceal from view, according to the affidavit of probable cause.

Van Liew

The vehicle’s occupants were asked to exit the Nissan and leave everything inside, but noticed Van Liew had placed the plastic bag into his hoodie pocket. He ultimately gave it to officers and said it was marijuana, but that he didn’t have a marijuana card. K-9 Officer Blue then conducted a sniff test of the Nissan and alerted officers to the presence of controlled substances inside the vehicle, the police report states.

Officers were given consent to search the vehicle and Van Liew’s possessions. Inside Van Liew’s bag, officers found a silver cocaine press used to grind chunks of the drug into a powder. When Van Liew was taken into custody and strip searched, officers found a corner-tied bag containing about 11 grams of cocaine with a street value of about $1,100 that he attempted to conceal in a closed fist, the report states.

In an interview, Van Liew told officers his girlfriend lived in the first-floor apartment of the residence along Fifth Avenue. When officers told Van Liew they would be compiling a search warrant for her residence, Van Liew said they wouldn’t find cocaine there because he bought it from the occupants of the second-floor apartment, the report states.

Van Liew said one of the individuals at the apartment, later identified as Aurandt, took him to the residence’s attic, where he saw about 13 ounces of cocaine. Van Liew said he paid about $300 for 3.5 grams of cocaine and Aurandt gave him additional cocaine for a total of 11 grams. A search warrant was executed at the residence and officers reported Aurandt jumped from a third-floor window and fled onto the rooftop of a neighboring building before ultimately returning to the apartment, the report states.

Inside the second-floor apartment, officers located about two ounces of cocaine worth about $5,670, one ounce of marijuana worth about $560, 10 white pills, a homemade shotgun, an AR-15 rifle, two rifle magazines and various ammunition, about $1,126 in cash, two digital scales and one vacuum bag sealer. A search of the first-floor apartment yielded about three grams of cocaine worth $300, about 34 grams of marijuana worth $680, a cocaine press with suspected cocaine residue and a digital scale with residue, the report states.

Aurandt

Officers spoke with the second-floor tenant, who said rent for the apartment was expensive so she had been renting the attic space to Aurandt for cash, according to the affidavit.

Van Liew and Aurandt are scheduled for preliminary hearings April 1 in front of Jones.