A 24-year-old Easton man is charged in a scheme to rob a drug stash house in New York City.

A man who court papers identify as Carlos Welch was picked up about 3:30 p.m. last Wednesday at St. John and Milton streets on Easton's South Side.

City police Lt. Matthew Gerould said Easton officers assisted the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in making the arrest.

Welch lived in the 100 block of West Lincoln Street, Gerould said. He's being held as a federal prisoner in Lehigh County Jail awaiting extradition to New York, records show.

Federal authorities say Welch conspired with Antywan Mitchell, Joshua Padmore, Andre Shanks and Qualese Welch in a plan to use a gun to rip off five pounds of narcotics from a garage in Flushing, Queens.

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Carlos Welch -- who is referred to in court papers as CC-1 (co-conspirator 1) because he wasn't arrested at the same time as the other four -- was in the drug house the afternoon of Feb. 7, the ATF said. In later court papers requesting an arrest warrant, the ATF said they connected Welch to the group via his phone.

Carlos Welch's phone and text conversations with Padmore were recorded by the ATF, according to court records.

They discussed the kind of drugs and the amount and at one point, Carlos Welch said he would have stolen them himself but a man at the location collects knives, the ATF said.

"He keep a little knife on his waist," Welch said, according to the transcript.

Carlos Welch provided Padmore with the address and said on the alleged recordings that he was going to stall the one or two people there by saying he needed to get money to make a purchase.

"I said I'll be back. Cause I don't got nothing on me. Feel me? I came straight from PA," Carlos Welch allegedly told Padmore.

The suspects spoke in code about "food," which the ATF agent-in-charge said means drugs.

At 8:44 p.m., Padmore and Carols Welch spoke again and Welch said he and another man were going into the house and he was going come out and show the others where the drugs were in the garage, the ATF said.

The house was under law enforcement surveillance, and when a Toyota Rav-4 carrying Padmore and the other three drove twice around the block, authorities pulled it over, the ATF said. Padmore was bent over in the front passenger seat, Mitchell was driving and Shanks and Qualese Welch were sitting in the back, according to the ATF.

Authorities found a loaded Charter Arms .44-caliber Special revolver in a brown leather holster protruding from under the front passenger seat, the ATF said.

All four of the men in the SUV were arrested on charges of robbery, conspiracy to commit robbery and unlawful possession of a firearm, the ATF said. Welch, who faces the same charges, remained free until his arrest in Easton.

Carlos Welch was on parole from a previous weapons possession violation, the ATF said. He was released June 4 from state prison in New York.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York is prosecuting.

Tony Rhodin may be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyRhodin. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.

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