KINGWOOD — LSD, heroin, ketamine, ecstasy and psilocybin mushrooms, are some of the drugs found in Preston County by multiple law enforcement agencies over the past few days.
Many of the stops are in the area leading to Resonance Festival, a music festival this weekend on Marvin’s Mountaintop in Masontown. The festival is expected to be attended by about 10,000 people. Early arrival began on Wednesday with regular arrival starting Thursday, according to the festival’s website.
David Rees, of Niles, Michigan, was arrested and charged with fleeing with reckless indifference and possession with intent to distribute marijuana.
Just before 3 p.m. on Thursday, troopers with the West Virginia State Police stopped a Honda CR-V near the intersection of W.Va 7 and Sunny Hill Road. A trooper approached the driver, Rees, who rolled his window up and refused to exit the vehicle before taking off down Sunny Hill Road — driving through the yards of residents and causing other motorists to dodge him.
Rees caused two people directing traffic for Resonance to hurriedly leave the road on West Herring Road — which leads to Marvin’s Mountain and the festival, the complaint said. Other officers traveling the opposite direction were able to stop Rees, who then had to be removed from his vehicle.
The complaint said a search of his vehicle turned up 7 grams of mushrooms and multiple bags of marijuana.
A state trooper stopped David Gajer, of Brooklyn, New York, on W. Va. 7 for left-of-center and following-too-closely violations. While doing traffic paperwork, a K9 alerted to drugs and a search found 8.4 grams of ketamine, a criminal complaint stated.
According to criminal complaints, a state trooper stopped a tan pickup for making an improper U-turn on Sunny Hill Road on Wednesday. The driver, Nicholas Johnson, and the two passengers, Katherine Botzet and Sara Stockard, are each charged possession with intent to distribute THC, transporting narcotics into the state, and conspiracy to commit a felony.
While speaking with Johnson, the trooper noticed wrapping papers commonly used to smoke marijuana in the center console. Johnson did not give consent to have the vehicle searched but a Preston County Sheriff’s deputy and his K9 came and alerted to drugs, the complaint states.
Digital scales, a bag of weed with 291 grams, and suspected THC extract weighing 99 grams with packaging, a food-saver vacuum sealing machine, and two magnetic stash boxes were found in the vehicle, according to the complaint.
Bryce Gaetano, of Boardman, Ohio, was the passenger in a vehicle stopped by a Preston County Sheriff’s Deputy for failing to stop when it left Sunny Hill Road and entered Nuce Road, according to a criminal complaint.
While the traffic violation was being given, a K9 indicated there were drugs in the vehicle, the complaint said. The search found a large black case with a large amount of marijuana, psilocybin mushrooms and digital scales. The case also had an ID card on the outside with Gaetano’s name on it.
Gaetano said he was a priest and the substances were for religious purposes. He is charged with two counts of possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance.
Alexandria Farber and Lucas Dawson, of Michigan, are each charged with possession with intent to distribute and conspiracy.
The two were stopped for a non-functioning taillight on W. Va. 7 by a Clarksburg police officer. The officer’s K9 alerted to drugs and a search found a“large amount of marijuana in multiple containers, a small amount of LSD, and capsules believed to contain ground psilocybin mushrooms, according to a criminal complaint. $1,100 and paper packaging materials were also found.
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