Exeter man sentenced for drug dealing
NORRISTOWN » A Berks County man who previously spent time behind bars for a drug dealing habit has been sent back to prison for similar crimes in Pottstown and Lower Providence.
Tarik Darnell Artis, 34, of the first block of Warwick Court, Exeter Township, was sentenced in Montgomery County Court to 2½ to 10 years in a state correctional facility after he pleaded guilty to charges of possession with intent to deliver cocaine and heroin and fentanyl in connection with incidents that occurred between February and April 2017. The sentence was imposed by Judge Risa Vetri Ferman as part of a plea agreement.
With the charges, authorities alleged Artis delivered an amount of heroin laced with fentanyl to a confidential informant at a location in Pottstown in February 2017.
“The evidence from this controlled buy was sent to the lab for analysis,” Pottstown police alleged in an arrest affidavit, adding the tests confirmed that the substance contained heroin and fentanyl.
Prosecutors alleged the substance weighed about 0.1 grams. Authorities said fentanyl is more than 50 times stronger than streetlevel heroin.
During the second incident, about 11:08 a.m. April 18, 2017, a Lower Providence police officer observed a vehicle, operated by Artis westbound on Egypt Road, travel through a steady red traffic signal at Trooper Road, according to a criminal complaint. During a subsequent traffic stop, as police questioned Artis they recognized the odor of marijuana coming from the inside of the vehicle, according to the arrest affidavit.
“I also observed numerous air fresheners hanging on the rear view mirror, which I know through my training and experience, can be used by people in possession of narcotics as a masking agent for the odor of the narcotics,” a Lower Providence police officer wrote in the arrest affidavit.
Artis, police said, appeared nervous and police observed small pieces of marijuana on the driver’s seat and on the floor at the driver’s seat, according to court papers. When police searched the trunk of the vehicle they found a green shoulder bag in which was a sandwich-type bag containing a large amount of crack cocaine, according to the arrest affidavit.
With the charges, prosecutors alleged Artis was in possession of 26.7 grams of cocaine.
Artis is no stranger to law enforcement and has previous convictions for drug and weapons offenses, according to court records.
In February 2011, Artis, then 27, was sentenced to 2-to-5-years in a state correctional facility after he pleaded guilty to charges of possession with intent to deliver cocaine in connection with three separate incidents that occurred in Pottstown between February and March of 2010.
In July 2002, according to court records, Artis, then 19, of the 200 block of Pine Forge Road, was sentenced to four to eight years in state prison by Montgomery County Judge William R. Carpenter. In that case, Artis pleaded guilty to one count of having a firearm without a license in connection with an Aug. 14, 2001, shooting, and three counts of possession with intent to deliver cocaine in connection with drug-dealing activities that occurred between May 2001 and February 2002.