Team of vice officers seize crack cocaine, 2 firearms in raid of family residence in Reading
Jan. 27—State police and Reading vice and narcotics officers along with members of the Berks County District Attorney's Drug Task Force seized dozens of packets of crack cocaine during a raid Thursday of a city home.
A man who was one of several residents, including a number of juveniles, of the home in the 400 block of Spring Street was taken into custody in a second-floor bedroom where the drugs and two weapons were found, investigators said in a criminal complaint.
Cory C. Rodriguez, 32, was charged with possessing and intending to deliver cocaine and felony possession of a firearm. Police said Rodriguez has a burglary conviction that prohibits him from having a firearm.
Rodriguez was committed to Berks County Prison in lieu of $250,000 bail to await a hearing following arraignment Thursday night before District Judge Kyley L. Scott in Reading Central Court.
According to investigators:
As part of an investigation, members of the Troop L vice and narcotics unit obtained a search warrant for the home and the car and body of Rodriguez.
About 9:30 a.m. a team of officers went to the home. No one answered the front door, so officers made entry.
Officers made contact with a woman and several juveniles. Rodriguez was found in the second-floor front bedroom. Both firearms were within arm's reach of where he was found.
Police found 35 resealable baggies of crack cocaine packaged for street sale. They also found a bag of cocaine in the kitchen cabinet.
Drug paraphernalia consistent with a drug-distribution operation was also found along with $446.
