Traffic stop results in heroin bust

A traffic stop around noon Sunday led to a large heroin bust six hours later.
Three people have been charged.

Shelby Police Sgt. Dave Mack said police were called about a suspicious vehicle in an
abandoned building parking lot on Martin Drive at noon.

Mack and officer Aaron Bushey pulled over two vehicles leaving the building, a white pickup
and a green Tracker.

Police soon learned that the man driving the white truck had just purchased a stolen Colt 45
handgun from Henry Conley, 29, who was inside the Tracker with his sister and girlfriend.

After his sister, the driver, consented to her car being searched, Mack said he found a bunch of
loose jewelry and a plastic bag of loose change.

All three were brought to the police station.

While Bushey was interviewing Conley, of 29 Rowland Ave., a man called the department to
report his 7 Grove Ave. home had just been burglarized.

Among the stolen items were a Colt 45 handgun, a bunch of $2 bills, gold coins, one gold Loonie
dollar and jewelry.

Mack said he charged Conley with burglary, but not his sister and girlfriend, who reportedly
were called to pick him up from the scene of the crime and were unaware of what had taken
place.

When questioned where the $2 bills, Loonie dollar and gold coins were, Conley confessed that
he'd already spent them on heroin at a home at 12 Grove Ave. Extension.

"We'd been receiving complaints on the couple that lives there for months," Mack said.
Police obtained a search warrant and contacted METRICH commander Kenny Coontz for
assistance.

At 6:10 p.m., both agencies raided the home of Shane Brown, 38, and Honnie Muhr, 44.
The couple were secured in their bedroom while officers discovered the missing stolen items,
along with 58 balloons of heroin in pill bottles, nearly $2,000 cash and drug paraphernalia like
syringes and snort sticks.

Mack said the couple admitted to using and trafficking drugs. Brown told police he sells the
balloons for $25 a piece.

Police also seized Brown's black 1999 Chevy pickup.

Brown and Muhr were taken to the Richland County Jail Sunday night and charged with drug
possession, a fifth-degree felony.

Today, Mack said police will push to amend the charge to a third-degree felony, along with drug
trafficking charges for both, second-degree felonies.

"It's a second-degree felony because it's within 1,000 feet of a school zone," Mack said.

Originally published in the News Journal on September 25, 2012.