A routine undercover drug buy in Lehighton turned into a cross-county chase on Sept. 29, ending with two Philadelphia-area men arrested on foot in a North Whitehall Township driveway and police recovering 237 bags of fentanyl, methamphetamine, Suboxone and marked cash. Michael B. Washington, 40, and Donte M. Jackson, whose age has been reported as both 32 and 33 in different accounts, now face felony drug charges after the brief pursuit that authorities say ended without anyone getting hurt.
Undercover Buy Turns Into a Chase
The operation began around 5 p.m. in the Lehighton area, when the Carbon County Drug Task Force, working with Lehighton Borough Police, moved to make an arrest after an undercover transaction, according to a police release cited by 28/22 News. Washington and Jackson had arrived in a black Honda, and when officers attempted to take the two men into custody, they instead fled, according to lehighvalleylive.com.
The chase crossed from Carbon County into Lehigh County, with the pair allegedly driving in an extremely reckless manner. Per Times News, the driver at one point attempted to strike pursuing police units, prompting officers to call off the pursuit for safety reasons.
Suspects Caught Within a Quarter-Mile
A short time later, a vehicle matching the Honda's description turned up stopped in a residential driveway on Candlewycke Drive in Laurys Station, within North Whitehall Township, the same report notes. Washington and Jackson had abandoned the car and fled on foot, but officers tracked them down and arrested both men within about 20 minutes, less than a quarter-mile from where the Honda was found.
A Slate Belt Regional Police K-9 team swept the area afterward for weapons or additional narcotics, but the report states no items were located during that search. No injuries were reported during the incident, according to the same account.
Drugs, Cash Recovered From the Bust
Police said the operation yielded a substantial haul: 237 bags of suspected fentanyl, roughly 58 grams of methamphetamine, 10 doses of Suboxone, a small amount of marijuana, and the marked money used by undercover narcotics officers, per the tnonline.com account. A separate report from the same outlet described the methamphetamine purchase differently, saying investigators working with confidential informants had arranged to buy 2 ounces of methamphetamine for $2,100 — a detail that does not fully align with the 58-gram figure cited elsewhere in its coverage.
WFMZ reports that both men are from the Philadelphia area, and its coverage lists Jackson's age as 33, while a separate Times News report lists him as 32 — a discrepancy that remains unresolved across the available reporting.
Charges and Bail
Washington and Jackson were arraigned on felony drug charges and related counts, including two counts each of possession with intent to deliver, according to WFMZ. Washington was additionally charged with reckless driving. Both men were sent to Carbon County Prison, with Washington held in lieu of $150,000 bail and Jackson held in lieu of $100,000 bail.
The case now heads toward a preliminary hearing, where prosecutors will need to show enough evidence to warrant a trial. No outcome of that hearing had been reported as of publication.
