CLEARFIELD – A Coalport man pleaded guilty to ordering bath salts from China during colloquy court on Monday.
Karl Anthony Sill, 40, pleaded guilty to criminal attempt/possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance and criminal use of communication facility, both felony charges, and purchase of a controlled substance by an unauthorized person.
Judge Paul E. Cherry sentenced him to 12 months to three years in state prison.
The charges stem from an incident in October of 2017 after the attorney general’s office received information that Sill was ordering bath salts from China and having them shipped to a P.O. Box in Coalport because at the time, he was staying at Tomorrow’s Hope in that town.
Prior to sentencing, Sill made a comment that after he goes into prison and then gets out, he does the same things.
Cherry responded that he hoped that the programs at state prison would help him and stop the cycle of incarceration, which Sill has been in since 2006.
Online court records show Sill has had drug and theft charges in both Blair and Cambria counties.
According to the affidavit of probable cause, a state parole officer approached Sill because he had violated a condition of his parole.
This officer was then able to search Sill’s phone where she found e-mails regarding the purchase of a controlled substance.
Further investigation of the phone revealed the tracking numbers associated with the shipment.
When it arrived in the area, it was taken by Homeland Security since it was from China. The package was opened and then turned over to a postal inspector.
The inspector told an AG agent that it contained bath salts weighing approximately 114 grams.
It was then picked up by that agent and taken to the Clearfield County Drug Task Force office where it was inspected by the agent and a Lawrence Township police officer before being sent for testing.
The crime lab in Erie determined the substances to be three different types of substitute cathinone, which is a schedule 1 drug.
