Three people from Schuylkill County are being held in the county prison on new charges that they sold fentanyl and methamphetamine to an undercover officer across the summer, in an investigation run by the Schuylkill County District Attorney's Office Drug Task Force and the Pennsylvania State Police, according to court reporting by the Coal Region Canary published on November 13 and 14.

Ashley Licona, 34, of Pottsville, faces four new cases. Vanna McCabe, 40, of Pottsville, faces two cases, and Richard Bealer, 44, of New Ringgold, faces one. Police say an undercover officer bought meth, fentanyl and drug mixtures from the three between May and September, with many of the deals arranged by a man who set them up by phone and rode along in the officer's car. Police say that man was paid between $50 and $93 for his help on several occasions.

The September search that came first

Licona was taken into custody in late September after the Drug Task Force, State Police and Pottsville police searched her home on East Norwegian Street and reported finding about 454 grams of methamphetamine and 25 grams of fentanyl. In earlier reporting on the same investigation, the Canary put the estimated street value of the meth at $22,700 and of the fentanyl at $12,500, and said Licona was arrested on September 29 and later waived her preliminary hearing on October 19 in that first case, sending it to Schuylkill County Court. Magisterial District Judge Anthony Kilker had set her bail at $100,000 in that case. The new charges stem from sales police say happened in the months before the search.

What police say the undercover officer bought from Licona

Police say the officer bought suspected fentanyl from Licona outside her home three times after arranging the deals by phone: $200 worth on July 9, $360 worth on July 15, and $480 worth on August 11, with Licona walking out to the passenger side of the officer's car each time. State Police lab testing found fentanyl in the July 9 and August 11 purchases, which weighed about a third of a gram and 3.6 grams. The July 15 purchase, about 2.8 grams, contained heroin, fentanyl, cocaine, xylazine, ketamine and tramadol, police say.

On July 22, police say, Licona agreed by text and phone to sell fentanyl and meth for $375, then sent a man out of the house with two glassine baggies holding less than a quarter of a gram of a substance containing the same six drugs. On August 27, police say, she weighed out two ounces of meth for another buyer in the officer's presence and gave the officer the rest of the bag for $1,800; when investigators weighed that meth it came to about 157 grams in lab testing, and $450 was later returned to the officer after a shortfall dispute. On September 11 the officer paid her $1,800 for meth in a deal arranged the same way, and on September 24, police say, she took $825 outside her home and handed over suspected fentanyl and meth that field-tested positive.

The McCabe and Bealer allegations

McCabe's first case stems from a July 9 deal arranged around West Arch Street and a Family Dollar store, police say: the officer paid $800 for meth and another $100, and lab testing found about 56 grams of meth and less than a tenth of a gram of fentanyl, with McCabe charged over the fentanyl. Her second case, from July 16 around the Sunoco A-Plus on South Claude A. Lord Boulevard, involves about 28 grams of meth and less than a tenth of a gram of a substance containing fentanyl and acetyl fentanyl in lab testing, with $350 of the officer's $800 returned, police say.

Bealer's case covers three meth sales in May, police say: on May 12 he allegedly got into the officer's car near North 3rd Street in Pottsville, took $600 and handed over meth; sales followed on May 21 and May 28, the last again for $600 at his residence. Lab testing found each of Bealer's three sales weighed between 52 and 56 grams of meth, according to police.

The charges and the bail, in full

Across her four new cases, Licona is charged with 16 counts of possession with intent to deliver, 10 counts of conspiracy, four counts of criminal use of a communication facility, and eight counts of possession of a controlled substance. McCabe faces six counts of possession with intent to deliver, nine counts of conspiracy, three counts of criminal use of a communication facility, and three counts of possession of a controlled substance, and Bealer faces the same number of each charge, according to the reporting.

Licona and McCabe were arraigned on Tuesday and Bealer on Friday before Magisterial District Judge James Reiley. Reiley set Licona's bail at $25,000 in each of her four cases and McCabe's at $25,000 in each of her two cases; Bealer's bail is $50,000. Reiley also issued orders in all seven cases requiring that the source of any bail money not be illegally gotten. All three are being held in Schuylkill County Prison.

Background: one investigation, several defendants

The new cases are the latest branch of the same East Norwegian Street investigation. In October, a fourth man, Nathan Sites, 44, of Pottsville, was charged in connection with a July 22 sale outside the same home, after lab testing on a 0.23-gram substance found heroin, fentanyl, cocaine, xylazine, ketamine and tramadol. The pattern investigators describe — small fentanyl sales, larger meth sales, and mixtures carrying xylazine and other drugs — is the pattern Pennsylvania health and police officials have warned about across the state's coal-region and small-city drug markets, where a few grams of a mixed powder can carry several different risks at once.

What happens next

Preliminary hearings for all three defendants in the new cases are scheduled for November 30 before Judge Reiley in Pottsville. At those hearings the prosecution must show enough evidence for the charges to move toward Schuylkill County Court; the defendants can also waive the hearings, as Licona did in her first case in October. No pleas on the new charges were reported in the November 13–14 reporting.