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HAZLE TWP. — Police have charged a Hazleton man in the death of an alleged drug dealer whose body was found in Hazle Township on Tuesday night.
The state police Troop N Major Case Team on Wednesday announced the arrest of Jancarlos Perez, 21, of Hazleton, in the death of Jose Alberto Concepcion.
State police said they were dispatched Tuesday night to a dirt road off North Park Drive in Humboldt Industrial Park North, in Hazle Township, after they received a report that a man’s body had been discovered.
Police said their investigation subsequently determined that the man, identified as the 23-year-old Concepcion, of 427 E. 5th St., Hazleton, was the victim of a homicide.
While police were trying to identify Concepcion, they learned that Hazleton city police were investigating an arson of a vehicle in the Club 570 parking lot of off Stockton Road that had been reported at 7:52 p.m. on Tuesday. Investigators said they believe that the vehicle had been used by Concepcion earlier in the day.
Perez was charged with an open count of criminal homicide, felony counts of arson, criminal mischief, theft by unlawful taking and receiving stolen property and a misdemeanor count of tampering with or fabricating evidence.
Perez was arraigned before District Judge James Dixon and jailed at the Luzerne County Correctional Facility without bail to await a preliminary hearing.
Victim’s arrest
At the time of his death, Concepcion was facing felony drug charges in Luzerne County Court stemming from an incident last summer in which state troopers allegedly caught him with two bricks of heroin.
According to an affidavit, troopers from the Pennsylvania State Police barracks in Hazleton were tipped off on July 8, 2014, that a white Ford Explorer with a green back operated by Concepcion likely had several bricks of heroin stashed inside and that the vehicle would likely be near Vita Line Products in the Humboldt Industrial Park that night.
State troopers later saw two men inside a vehicle matching the caller’s description parked on North Park Drive, the same area where Concepcion’s body was found on Tuesday.
Concepcion, the driver, had at first told police the two were “hanging out” but later said they were in the area shooting a .22-caliber rifle, which was found in the backseat.
Concepcion refused a trooper’s requests to search the SUV for illegal drugs and a drug-sniffing dog was later brought in to conduct a sweep of the vehicle.
Heroin found
Police discovered two bricks of heroin inside a cigarette pack in the driver’s side door. Plastic bands and ammunition also were recovered inside from the vehicle, the complaint says.
Police said Concepcion’s cell phone kept ringing and receiving text messages throughout their search of the Explorer. One message asked if the sender could “come by for three buns.” Another text message from “Tjeff” said he was ready and Concepcion could “bring it by.”
Interviewed by police later that night, Concepcion at first declined to provide a statement but later told them he didn’t know who the heroin belonged to, or how it got into a cigarette pack similar to the brand he was smoking earlier during the search of the vehicle.
The bricks found in the vehicle were later opened and found to contain 100 individual wax baggies of suspected heroin wrapped in groups of ten, a form of packaging consistent with drug distribution, the complaint says.
Concepcion was free on $50,000 bail at the time of his death, according to court records.
State police had said earlier Wednesday that the homicide investigation was continuing, with assistance from police officers from Hazleton and West Hazleton, as well as the Luzerne County District Attorney’s Office and the Luzerne County Coroner’s Office.
District Attorney Stefanie Salavantis declined to comment on the investigation. An autopsy was scheduled for 11 a.m. Thursday.
