Cops: Man Found With 25,000 Bags Of Heroin

APRIL 25--A Pennsylvania man was found with a staggering 25,000 bags of heroin during a traffic stop on a Keystone State roadway, police report.

According to a criminal complaint, Ydale Thomas, 35, was behind the wheel of a Ford Explorer when it was pulled over for traffic infractions late last year by a state trooper patrolling I-76.

When questioned by the cop, Thomas reportedly was “extremely nervous” and his hands were “visibly trembling.”  

Thomas claimed he was returning home to the Pittsburgh area after having driven earlier that day to Philadelphia, where he had purportedly sold a dog to a man at a gas station.

The trooper concluded that Thomas was being “deceptive.”

The affidavit contends that, “It cannot be overstated that Philadelphia, PA is a source location for the distribution of narcotics, and a regional epicenter for all criminal activity” and is “a hotbed for wholesale narcotics trafficking stash houses.”

These are not municipal descriptions co-signed by the Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau.

A police check on Thomas’s name turned up an “extensive criminal history to include narcotics violations.” When asked for consent to search his vehicle, Thomas declined.

Sensing that smuggling might be afoot, a drug detection canine was summoned. The dog alerted on the car, prompting investigators to subsequently secure a search warrant.

Inside the Ford, cops found three large bags containing “suspected heroin packaged for resale approx. 25,000 stamp bags.” A “stamp bag,” or glassine, contains a single dose of heroin.

Pictured above, Thomas was arraigned Tuesday on a variety of felony and misdemeanor drug charges. A judge ordered him locked up in lieu of $10,000 bail. (3 pages)