Drug Paraphernalia

Mr. Lopez was going into the drug-paraphernalia business and he needed advice from the wholesaler. Sam, a salesman for Philadelphia's Award Distributing Co., asked what kind of a neighborhood he was in. "Crack" mostly, the customer replied. "What type of people?" Sam asked. "All Hispanic people? "Blacks and Hispanics," Mr. Lopez replied. He wanted to know what would sell well: "What moves?" he asked. "All this glass moves," Sam replied, indicating Award's catalogue, which advertised a variety of glass crack pipes and other drug paraphernalia.

John Lewis, 45, who held his wife, Arlene, 35, hostage for more than 17 hours in their apartment on 17th Street near Jefferson, is taken away by police late yesterday afternoon. Although police found no weapon, a search of the apartment did reveal 36 rounds of .38-caliber ammunition, along with glassine packets and other drug paraphernalia.

In the city's toughest neighborhoods, narcotics officers routinely bust mini-marts and bodegas for selling tiny ziplock plastic bags. Police consider the bags to be drug paraphernalia. But many store owners say they bought the bags legally from tobacco wholesalers and other distributors and thought they could sell them. At issue is whether the buyer is using the bags for drugs or for legitimate items like coins, jewelry, stamps and small amounts of tobacco. "The question is whether the item is for a legal function or an illegal function," said Tennessee-based lawyer Robert T. Vaughn, an expert on drug-paraphernalia laws.

For the second time in two months, a couple yesterday led police on a high-speed chase in a stolen car, authorities said. And for the second time in two months, the woman was caught and the man got away. Penny Myers, 28, was arrested shortly after 3 a.m. yesterday and charged with resisting arrest, receiving stolen property, and possessing drug paraphernalia. She was being held in Burlington County Jail on $50,000 bail. An unidentified homeless man who was also a passenger in the vehicle was arrested and charged with receiving stolen property and obstructing justice.

Burlington County, N.J., authorities are investigating the fatal shooting by police of a Northeast Philadelphia man who escaped from custody twice following an altercation at a supermarket. A preliminary investigation by the county prosecutor's office showed the shooting of Rocco M. Yannerell was accidental, according to Capt. Robert Scara of the Burlington County prosecutor's office. Cinnaminson Township Police Officer William Covert was following standard police procedure when his service revolver discharged during a struggle with the victim late Tuesday night, Scara said.

Two Plymouth neighbors who live one block from the township police station have been charged with drug violations after a raid by police on a fortified room at the rear of a garage in the 700 block of Belvoir Road. Michael P. Arena, 18, and Paul J. DeSantis, 21, were arrested at the Arena premises about 9:45 p.m. Friday. They were charged with possession of a controlled substance, possession of a controlled substance with intent to sell, possession of drug paraphernalia, and criminal conspiracy.

A Lower Moreland man arrested in May along with 21 other Montgomery County residents has been ordered to stand trial on drug charges in Montgomery County Court. Daniel Luboff, 36, of the 3100 block of Philmont Avenue, was charged with possession of and possession with intent to deliver marijuana and cocaine, according to a spokeswoman at District Justice James B. Hunter's office. Luboff posted his home for the $50,000 bail, which Hunter continued at the conclusion of Monday's preliminary hearing.

Police shut down what they described as two crack houses in South Ardmore and arrested 14 people during a raid early yesterday. The raid followed a six-month undercover investigation by the Lower Merion Police Department, Pennsylvania State Police and the Montgomery County District Attorney's Narcotic Enforcement Team, police said. About 280 vials of crack, valued at $1,300, were found in the two houses in the 100 block of Simpson Road, said police. They also reported seizing a starter pistol, a police scanner and drug paraphernalia.

A Cinnaminson police officer was indicted yesterday by a state grand jury in connection with the August 1987 death of a man suspected of shoplifting and carrying drug paraphernalia. Officer William K. Covert, 31, was charged with manslaughter in the one- count indictment. Covert acted recklessly while arresting Rocco M. Yannarell, the indictment alleges. Covert was in the process of arresting Yannarell, a 34-year-old Philadelphia resident, in Cinnaminson on Aug. 18 when the officer's revolver discharged, according to Deputy Attorney General Wayne Forrest.

A 28-year-old woman who was stabbed in the chest with a pair of scissors was in critical condition yesterday at a local hospital, police said. Officers said they found Pamela Gorman lying just inside her doorway, with scissors lodged several inches into her chest and bleeding profusely late Friday at her home on Norcross Lane. Police said they believe that Gorman, who was found half-clothed, was stabbed in her kitchen. They said there was a 16-foot trail leading from a large pool of blood on the kitchen floor to the front door.

When narcotics officers raided his Nicetown bodega, store owner Juan Martinez says they were looking for more than drugs. They helped themselves to Red Bull, Mountain Dew, crackers, cigarettes, and $24,000 that he said was stolen during the February 2007 raid of his store, Gratz Mini Mart. Martinez and his deli worker were both arrested and charged with possession of drug paraphernalia and criminal conspiracy. In the store, according to police arrest records, the officers found tiny plastic zippered bags often used to package crack cocaine for individual sale.

In the city's toughest neighborhoods, narcotics officers routinely bust mini-marts and bodegas for selling tiny ziplock plastic bags. Police consider the bags to be drug paraphernalia. But many store owners say they bought the bags legally from tobacco wholesalers and other distributors and thought they could sell them. At issue is whether the buyer is using the bags for drugs or for legitimate items like coins, jewelry, stamps and small amounts of tobacco. "The question is whether the item is for a legal function or an illegal function," said Tennessee-based lawyer Robert T. Vaughn, an expert on drug-paraphernalia laws.

A Frankford check-cashing business that also allegedly sold colorful glass marijuana bongs, multicolored plastic bags, and sophisticated electronic scales was raided, police announced yesterday. "Clearly, this isn't just a convenience store for junkies," said Philadelphia Narcotics Chief Inspector Keith Sadler. "This is a superstore for drug dealers. " Police descended Wednesday on the check-cashing operation, Pratt Services Checks Cashing at 1532-34 Pratt St., and hauled off about $366,000 worth of paraphernalia and bundles of cash totaling $334,000, Sadler said.

Four people were found dead in a suburban Winslow Township home last night in what authorities said might be drug-related killings. A township police detective found the two men and two women, all about 30 years old, about 6 p.m. in the 100 block of Stevens Avenue, near Winslow Township High School, Camden County Prosecutor Lee A. Solomon said. "This is a multiple homicide. It's a horrible scene," he told reporters. "We are not ruling out any possibilities. " Solomon said that drug paraphernalia had been found in the house, and that drugs might be a possible motive.

A Main Line shop specializing in drug paraphernalia was shut down permanently and the owner sent to prison yesterday, the result of two days of police surveillance last winter. Leslie Mark Joblin of Wynnewood, owner of Critters on Lancaster Avenue in Rosemont, was sentenced in Montgomery County Court to six to 12 months in prison and two years probation. He was charged with selling pipes, rolling paper, urine-purifier kits and bongs - water pipes often used for smoking marijuana - in violation of the Pennsylvania Controlled Substance, Drug, Device and Cosmetic Act. The Critters trademark logo now belongs to the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office.

Continuing his crusade to rid Bucks County of so-called "head shops," District Attorney Alan Rubenstein announced last night that Bucks County detectives and local police had raided three such stores in New Hope and Falls Township yesterday, seizing $50,000 in merchandise and more than $1,000 in cash. They also arrested the stores' owners. Lynn Greene, of the Now & Then Shop on East Bridge Street in New Hope; Max Blank, owner of Back in Blue on South Main Street, in New Hope; and Faye Chichilitti, owner of High Senses on Trenton Road in Fallsington, were charged with the sale of drug paraphernalia and released on their own recognizance last night.

Bolstering the case against a New Hope shop owner, a Bucks County judge has decided that suspected drug paraphernalia seized during an August raid can be used as evidence during trial. After reviewing the events leading to the raid of Superkind Imports, Judge Ward F. Clark ruled Wednesday that the warrant to search the store was issued with sufficient probable cause. Timothy Duffy, whose shop was one of six targeted in a sweep, had contended otherwise and sought to suppress the evidence against him. On the day of the sweep, authorities learned of suspected paraphernalia in Duffy's store through Max Blank, owner of the Back in Blue shop, one flight below Superkind at 115 S. Main St. When police raided Blank's shop, he complained of selective enforcement.

Two of the six shop owners arrested in September as part of a countywide clampdown on the sale of drug paraphernalia entered guilty pleas in Bucks County Court last week and were ordered to pay fines of $1,000 each. The others are scheduled for trial later this month. The shopkeepers lost as much as $60,000 worth of merchandise in the September sweep, said Senior Deputy District Attorney Gary Gambardella, but the fines "just put an exclamation point on it. Clearly the message was sent.

The detective told a clerk his "pot" was clogging the bowl in his bong. Later, pointing to a gas mask used to inhale marijuana, he explained: "I want to melt my brain. " Finally, after buying a white T-shirt with a marijuana leaf printed on it, Montgomery County Detective David A. Evans left Frontiers, a Pottstown retailer. Wednesday, he dropped the act. Yesterday, the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office announced that Matthew J. Hansley, 26, of Skippack, the owner of Frontiers stores in Pottstown and Norristown, had been arrested and charged with possession of drug paraphernalia, possession with intent to deliver drug paraphernalia, and criminal conspiracy, all misdemeanors carrying penalties of six months to a year in prison and a $2,500 fine.

Five Bucks County shop owners will stand trial for allegedly distributing an array of suspected drug paraphernalia in their stores, although one lawyer contended that the items could easily be found at any local grocery store. District Justice Robert A. Schnell, sitting in Doylestown, yesterday bound the following store owners over for trial: Robert Clegg, 44, of the Warrington Tobacco Shop; John G. Tripodi of the Ink Well, in Upper Southampton; Max Blank of Back in Blue, in New Hope; Timothy Duffy of Superkind, in New Hope; and Faye G. Chichilitti of High Senses, in Falls.