Karon Burton, a freshman who is enrolled at La Salle but who sat out the 2008-09 season to concentrate on academics, was arrested in an undercover drug sting on Monday in his native Chester, according to a back-page story in today’s Delaware County Daily Times. More after the jump.

Burton was one of 10 people arrested in the undercover operation, which the newspaper described as “a reverse sales sting in a high-drug area” where marijuana, cocaine and heroin were being dealt. Thirteen cops were involved, and it sounds like Burton was smack dab in the middle of all the activity:

In Burton’s case, according to his arrest affidavit, police were initially eyeing the driver of a white Dodge Ram pickup truck who had asked the undercover officer for six bags of heroin, about 1:05 p.m.

When the officer showed his dope, the driver indicated the bags “were too light” and pulled off.

The driver proceeded around the block and pulled up to an intersection in a high-drug area. The driver was then seen motioning to a black male wearing a red jacket and a white T-shirt, later identified as Burton.

Burton, the affidavit states, after a brief conversation got into the passenger side of the white truck, which then pulled off.

A short distance away, police activated their lights and siren and attempted to stop the truck. The driver refused to stop. When the truck was in the area of 10th and McDowell streets, Burton jumped out of the moving truck and fell to the ground.

“When Mr. Burton got up, he was observed by (police) throw items to the ground and take off running,” the affidavit reads, in part. Police retrieved two sandwich bags that contained three clear plastic vials with matter that field-tested positive for marijuana.

As police pursued Burton, he was seen kicking down a fence in the 1000 block of Elsinsore Place.

Burton was apprehended about three blocks from where he fled the truck.

“He was fast, but our officers were faster,” Davis said, referring to Officers Matthew McCreights and Robert Rinderer, both rookies.

We want to resist the temptation of asking how the Explorers hoped to outrun Xavier and Temple with a point guard who couldn’t outrun a couple of rookie cops, but we just can’t. That said, Burton reportedly has a world of potential, and his arrival as a basketball player next year had presented coach John Giannini with the possibility of moving Rodney Green off the point and back to his natural position as a two-guard or small forward. Now, all bets are off, pending the outcome of Burton’s case. And if the cops are to be believed, it really doesn’t look good for him.

Links: La Salle lands Chester’s Burton [La Salle University]
Chester police land La Salle’s Burton [Delco Times]