Man draws jail for illegal drug activity
NORRISTOWN » A Norristown man has jail in his future after admitting to illegal drug activity in the borough.
Darius Jeremaine Mann, 26, of the 1800 block of Pine Street, was sentenced in Montgomery County Court to six to 23 months in the county jail after he pleaded guilty to a felony charge of possession with intent to deliver heroin in connection with incidents that occurred in January 2017. Judge Garrett D. Page ordered Mann to report to the jail on Jan. 19 to begin serving the sentence.
Mann will be eligible for the jail’s work release program during his incarceration.
Mann also must complete five years’ probation following parole, meaning he will be under court supervision for about seven years. The judge also ordered Mann to comply with all recommendations for outpatient treatment that may be required as a result of a drug and alcohol evaluation.
An investigation of Mann began in January 2017 when an informant cooperating with county detectives arranged to purchase an amount of heroin from Mann at a location in Norristown, according to a criminal complaint. Detectives with the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Drug Task Force placed the meeting place under surveillance and observed Mann arrive at the location in a gray Honda Accord, according to the arrest affidavit.
The informant got into the back seat of the Honda and Mann, a passenger in the vehicle, sold the informant heroin or fentanyl that was packaged in numerous blue waxed paper sleeves and wrapped in a store receipt, according to the criminal complaint.
The suspected drugs were not field tested at that time. But detectives said because Mann represented that the substance was heroin or fentanyl and because it was packaged in a way commonly used by heroin distributors, authorities did not doubt that it was heroin or fentanyl.
“Heroin and fentanyl are both easily absorbed through the skin. These controlled substances are frequently mixed and manufactured into a fine powder, increasing the possibility of this powder going airborne, putting police at greater risk of the substance being ingested,” detectives wrote in
court papers. “Fentanyl, even in amounts small enough to be viewed via microscope, can be fatal.”
Authorities said the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office takes the heroin and fentanyl epidemic “very seriously” and has informed members of the Drug Task Force not to conduct any field tests on fentanyl and instead await
analysis from a licensed laboratory.
When Mann was taken into custody he gave verbal and written statements admitting to being an active drug dealer, detectives alleged in the arrest affidavit.