Police: Plainfield Township Man Hid Drugs in Underwear During Bust

Easton police busted three men on drug charges Monday afternoon for alleged possession of marijuana, cocaine, heroin and Oxycodone after police followed their green Chevy Malibu.

But perhaps more significant are the criminal histories of two of the men.

• An Easton man, Jeremy Wayne Snyder, 22, is awaiting trial on a rape charge involving a 17-year-old girl in Ocean City, Md. He was charged in June on allegations he raped the girl at an Ocean City motel in May.
  
  Snyder says in his court file on the Easton bust that his rape trial will happen in two months. A June article in The Express Times details the rape charges against Snyder, who admitted to authorities he had sex with the girl but that it was consensual.

• Meanwhile, Cody William Stelma, 22, of Plainfield Township, admitted in his court file he spent two years in Northampton County Prison for armed robbery.
  
  Online court records show that in March 2010, Stelma got 24-48 months in prison after pleading guilty to a charge of robbery - inflict serious bodily injury. He was arrested by state police at Belfast in connection with the June 2009 robbery, the records say.

• The third man charged in the bust -- Michael Anthony Drummond, 19, of Easton’s South Side -- also was known by police. One of several criminal complaints filed in the bust says the department had open investigations on Drummond and Snyder for alleged controlled drug buys.
  
  In fact, Drummond also was charged after Monday’s bust in one of those buys – an alleged cocaine sale in May outside a Wilson gas station.

A fourth man was in the green Chevy transporting the suspects. But the complaints do not say if he was charged.

The complaints, filed by Detectives Andrew Ocetnik and Anthony Arredondo, tell the following story:

• Around 2:10 p.m. Monday, the detectives spotted the green Chevy Malibu being driven by Drummond. They followed the car to the 2100 block of Freemansburg Avenue in Wilson and watched as Snyder entered a house, left a few minutes later and ran back to the car. A man stood on the porch and talked on a cell phone before and after Snyder entered.

• The detectives followed the car to the 300 block of S. 10th Street and had another officer make a traffic stop on the 200 block of S. 10th Street. “All of the occupants… were moving around their hands furtively,” Arredondo wrote.

• They detected a strong odor of marijuana coming from the car and saw a quantity of marijuana near the front passenger floor area. They took Drummond into custody.

• Det. Ocetnik, meanwhile, saw Snyder in the back seat reaching into his waistband, asked him to keep his hands away from the waistband and to get out of the car. “For safety reasons” he tried to handcuff Snyder.

• Snyder swung one of his arms at Ocetnik and tried to run from the detectives. They pulled Snyder to the ground “and he continued to fight with us,” Ocetnik said.

• The detectives searched Snyder and found marijuana, cocaine, Oxycodone and a digital scale.

• Regarding Stelma, Arredondo said that as Stelma got out of the car, the detective noticed a bag of marijuana near a coat on the car floor. He also found a bag of marijuana in the coat, 20 packets of heroin and a letter addressed to Stelma, who said the coat was his. Police also found $71 and two cell phones.

• While being strip searched at the police station, Stelma said he had a bag of marijuana in his underwear. He removed the bag and gave it to Ocetnik. Also found was heroin in 10-bag bundles.

Drummond, of 254 W. St. Joseph St., was charged with possession or distribution of a small amount of marijuana as part of Monday’s bust. He also was charged with delivery of cocaine and criminal use of a communication facility in connection with the alleged May 24 controlled buy outside the 25th Street Exxon.

Snyder, of 26 N. 11th St., was charged with possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver for cocaine, marijuana and Oxycodone. Stelma, of 5647 Sherwood Drive, was charged with possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver for marijuana and heroin.

The three were arraigned later Monday by on-duty District Judge John Capobianco of Nazareth. They were committed to Northampton County Prison – Drummond in lieu of $2,000 bail in Monday’s bust and $2,000 bail for the May controlled buy; Snyder in lieu of $50,000 bail, and Stelma in lieu of $25,000 bail.