DUBOIS, Pa. (EYT) — A Luthersburg man wanted in connection with the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s recent “Snail Mail” operation was apprehended in DuBois on Tuesday.
Around 10:45 p.m., Sykesville Borough Police Officers Brittaney Gray and Andrew Turnbull were fueling their patrol car at Sheetz on Blinker Light Parkway when a concerned citizen provided information indicating Matthew Watson’s girlfriend was inside the store.
Watson was a known fugitive wanted in connection with “Operation Snail Mail,” conducted by the Office of the Attorney General, Pennsylvania State Police Vice Unit, and local task force agencies from Clarion, Jefferson, and Clearfield counties.
Officers confirmed the identity of the woman and determined that a person who they believed to be Matthew Watson was sitting in a vehicle parked outside the store.
Watson’s vehicle passed Officers Gray and Turnbull while they awaited backup, and both officers confirmed Watson was in the vehicle.
Police followed Watson’s vehicle out of the parking lot and eventually onto Wayne Road.
Once additional police units arrived, a traffic stop was initiated in conjunction with Sandy Twp. Police and DuBois City Police.
Watson faces two felony counts of Manufacture, Delivery, or Possession With Intent to Manufacture or Deliver.
He was placed in the Jefferson County Jail after failing to post $50,000.00 cash bail.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled for November 3 at 10:15 a.m. with Magisterial District Judge Gregory M. Bazylak presiding.
Attorney General Josh Shapiro announced charges against 30 suspected drug dealers following a multi-agency effort dubbed “Operation Snail Mail.” The charges stem from the shipment and sale of $1.6 million in crystal methamphetamine in Jefferson, Clarion, Clearfield, Elk and Forest counties over the last year and a half.
The crystal meth was shipped to Jefferson County and the surrounding area through the U.S. mail from drug dealers in Arizona and California. It was then sold throughout North Central Pennsylvania by a network of 30 drug dealers. The 35 pounds of crystal meth that they sold – broken up into ¼ and ½ gram doses – produced between 32,000 and 64,000 doses of the drug that were sold in the 5 North Central PA counties.
Investigators used a series of controlled purchases, court-approved electronic surveillance, package interceptions and other tactics to identify the drug dealers involved.
The cases will be prosecuted in Jefferson County by Senior Deputy Attorney General Marnie Sheehan-Balchon and District Attorney Burkett, appointed a Special Deputy Attorney General in this investigation.
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