A Philadelphia man was convicted this week in Lancaster County Court of having a $25,000 supply of heroin in his car when police stopped him last year.

County Judge James Cullen convicted 35-year-old Waldemar Mercado-Cruz on Wednesday of felony drug-dealing, following a single-day non-jury trial.

Assistant District Attorney Maria Cusick, who won the conviction, presented evidence that Mercado-Cruz had 98 grams of heroin in his vehicle on March 29, 2014, when police contacted him in the 100 block of East King Street.

That amount of heroin, when broken down for individual sales, would yield about 300 bundles – with an estimated street value of $25,000.

Police were dispatched to that block for a report of an unknown vehicle parked in a private lot.
Mercado-Cruz had $290 in cash and three cellphones, but told police he didn’t have a job, city police reported.

Mercado-Cruz, free on $150,000 bail, will be sentenced after a background check is completed in about three months.

Lancaster city police Officers Jonathan Reppert and Anthony Weaver investigated the case.

MEDIA CONTACT: Brett A. Hambright, 717-295-2041; bhambright@co.lancaster.pa.us; Twitter: @BrettHambright