Two Lowell men are charged after coke found in car
A Lowell police K-9 found cocaine stashed in a car’s dashboard air bag compartment, leading to the arrest of two men who will be arraigned in Lowell District Court this morning on drug and weapons charges, police said.
Dallas Price-Fletcher, 24, faces charges including trafficking cocaine over 200 grams, possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, three counts of improper storage of a firearm, unlawful possession of ammunition and receiving stolen property.
Channa Phan, 23, faces a single charge of unlawful possession of cocaine with intent to distribute.
Detectives from the Lowell Police Special Investigations Section, along with the gang unit, had been investigating illegal drug sales linked to Price-Fletcher and executed a search warrant for his Middlesex Street apartment on Friday, according to a statement from the Lowell Police Department. Cops spotted a car leaving the address, driven by Phan, with PriceFletcher riding shotgun, police said.
“Lowell Police Officer Chris Hanson was summoned to the vehicle stop with his K-9 Bossi,” Lowell police Capt. Timothy Crowley said in a statement. “K-9 Bossi alerted on the vehicle’s dashboard and a ‘mechanical hide’ was located in the airbag section. Inside the hide were 25 individually wrapped baggies of what is believed to be crack cocaine and in the vehicle, $3,969.00 in cash.”
Police then searched the apartment, Crowley said, and found crack cocaine, scales, and other items suggesting an illegal drug operation had been going on inside. The search led to evidence linking PriceFletcher to a second, vacant apartment nearby, police said.
A second search warrant led cops to a trove of drug apparatus, including “a large illegal marijuana grow, eight large bags of marijuana, three firearms, 14 plastic baggies containing suspected crack cocaine weighing 207 grams and other evidence indicating a large-scale illegal drug distribution operation,” Crowley said.
One of the guns was reported stolen from Manchester, N.H., police said.