Whitehall Police Use Informant to Arrest Heroin Dealer

A SWAT team was ready, but it turns out that it wasn't necessary to bring down a heroin dealer in Whitehall Borough in mid-November, Whitehall police Chief Donald R. Dolfi said.

Police arrested Joshua Gunter, 24, of 455 Streets Run Rd. in Whitehall, on Nov. 19 after Dolfi said that a confidential informant engaged in a "drug-buy" with Gunter at Gunter's residence that afternoon.

Dolfi said that police officers from the nearby Baldwin Borough, Bethel Park and Mt. Lebanon police departments, as well as a Castle Shannon K-9 unit, joined Whitehall police on Nov. 19. Groups from those and other municipalities helped to form a South Hills Area Council of Governments SWAT team prior to the arrest that day, but Dolfi said that the SWAT team was deemed not to be necessary since the arrest of Gunter occurred outside.

Gunter sold the informant heroin while police were stationed nearby witnessing the transaction, Dolfi said. At that point, they executed arrest and search warrants on Gunter and on his residence, finding drug paraphernalia and more heroin at 455 Streets Run.

Dolfi said that his officers had been working on this case for a little more than a month after receiving information of possible drug activity at Gunter's home.

"All the work paid off," the chief said.

Gunter has been charged with delivery of a controlled substance, possession of a controlled substance, possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Read through other Whitehall police items here.

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