Kennett Square officer arrested on drug charges

A Kennett Square police officer has been suspended with pay following his arrest on drug charges late Tuesday night by state police, authorities said.

Officer Matthew Thomas Cordone, 36, of West Grove, attempted to deliver "a number of pills" in a ziplock bag to a location on Woodcrest Road in Penn Township, Chester County, a state police spokesman said.

The pills, which troopers believed to be the tranquilizer Xanax, were being analyzed today at a state lab.

Cordone was not on duty at the time of his arrest, the spokesman said.