A Scranton man who ultimately admitted to selling narcotics faces felony and misdemeanor drug counts after city police found 33 grams of crack cocaine concealed in his underwear during a traffic stop.

Investigating police conducted the traffic stop and arrested passenger Ryan R. Tully, 42, 1412 Schlager St., last week after receiving information about drug sales at that address.

Members of the Scranton Police Department’s Street Crimes Unit surveilling the residence Oct. 15 saw a man, later identified as Tully, exit the side of the duplex labeled 1412, walk east on Schlager Street and enter a vehicle near the intersection of Schlager and South Hyde Park Avenue. The vehicle then dropped him off back at the duplex and left the area at a high rate of speed, charging documents note.

Shortly thereafter, police observed the same man exit the residence again and get into the front passenger seat of a Dodge pickup truck. The pickup left, and other officers subsequently stopped it in the parking lot of a business in the 500 block of North Main Avenue. Both the driver and the passenger, Tully, appeared “extremely nervous,” with their hands shaking, their lips quivering and their carotid arteries “visibly pulsating,” police wrote in an affidavit of probable cause.

Tully, who was “profusely sweating,” denied having any illegal items and consented to a search. Police found no contraband in his pockets but ultimately located a bag containing “multiple individually packaged quantities of suspected narcotics” concealed in his underwear, per the affidavit. The suspected drugs field tested positive for cocaine and weighed 33 grams in total, police said.

Officers also discovered a rolled dollar bill, burned tin foil and a plastic bag containing residue in the pickup. Whether the driver faces any criminal charges was not immediately clear.

During an interview at police headquarters, Tully admitted to selling drugs at his residence and in the surrounding area, and told police he was carrying narcotics because he feared being robbed.

“Ryan stated that he purchases powder cocaine and personally converts it into crack cocaine but provided no additional details regarding the manufacturing process,” the affidavit notes. “Ryan explained that he sells narcotics at varying prices, depending on what buyers are willing to pay.”

Tully faces felony and misdemeanor drug counts and remains in Lackawanna County Prison in lieu of $100,000 bail. A preliminary hearing is tentatively slated for Oct. 29.

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