Rockton Man Allegedly Caught with Drugs Headed for Trial

DUBOIS – A Rockton man will stand trial for possessing drugs.

Drew Patrick Curley, 29, was charged by DuBois City police with felony manufacture/delivery/possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance, two misdemeanor counts of intentional possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia after contact with officers on March 1.

According to the affidavit of probable cause, police saw Curley in his truck while on patrol. Earlier that same day, a “known drug user” had reported that one of Curley’s “hot spots” for selling drugs was the parking lot of a grocery store.

The officers approached the vehicle and spoke with Curley. Curley laughed about the accusation he was selling drugs in the parking lot and explained he was waiting there for his mother to bring him gas money.

When he was asked if he had any illegal items in his truck, he laughed and said there was not anything in his vehicle.

His passenger, who is also known by police to be involved with drugs, was asked if there were any illegal substances in the car.

She then admitted she had a small amount of methamphetamine for her personal use. She was asked to exit the vehicle and stay with the other officers on-scene.

Curley was asked for consent to search his vehicle, to which he agreed.

In the rear bench seat, there was a black duffel bag, which was locked to the bench seat anchors. Curley agreed to unlock the bag so it could be searched.

Inside the bag was another cloth bag with a lock on it. When asked about it, Curley “immediately became more restless and stated there was nothing inside of the bag other than his medicine,” the officer noted in the criminal complaint. Curley’s voice was “shaky” and he was not willing to open the bag.

The officer then stated he would get his K9 officer from his vehicle and see if the dog could detect something in the bag. After that, he told Curley he would apply for a search warrant.

But, once the dog was out of the patrol vehicle, Curley stated “I don’t want to go back to jail. I will unlock it.”

He added that if the dog was used to detect drugs, he would definitely be going to jail.

Inside the bag, the officers found 12 blue stamp bags of suspected heroin, a baggie of suspected methamphetamine, a bag with a white powder, a digital scale and more empty bags, according to the report.

Both the suspected heroin and methamphetamine were tested and were positive for those substances, police said.

Curley waived his right to a preliminary hearing Friday during centralized court, sending the case onto the court of common pleas. He is in the Clearfield County Jail in lieu of $75,000 bail.