Two arrested, one cited on drug charges

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Police arrested two people and cited a third during separate traffic stops Thursday.

At West Myrtle and Hillman avenues on the South Side, a Washingtonville couple was pulled over about 6:50 p.m. by police after a vehicle driven by Justin Bias, 28, almost hit a police cruiser, reports said.

Reports said Bias appeared extremely nervous, and a police dog detected an odor of narcotics in the car. When police searched the car, they found a digital scale with suspected drug residue inside, reports said.

A passenger, Michelle Thorne, was searched, and she was made to take out of her pockets two needles, a pill bottle filled with an unknown substance and a large bag of suspected heroin. At first, she said the scale was hers, but later, Bias admitted the scale belonged to him.

Bias was cited on a charge of possession of drug paraphernalia, and Thorne was arrested and taken to the Mahoning County jail on charges of possession of heroin and possession of a drug-abuse instrument.

On the East Side, police pulled over a car driven by Allan D. Lee, 41, of Youngstown, at McGuffey and Berkley avenues about 1:50 p.m. after police learned that he was driving on a suspended license. A records check also showed that he had two failure-to-appear warrants from municipal court, reports said.

Reports said when Lee was taken to the jail, corrections officers found three pills in his pocket. There also was a pill bottle in his car with one pill inside and a crack pipe. Lee was arrested on the warrants and the charge of possession of drugs and possession of drug-abuse instruments.