Prison for gun, drug offenses

Dealer from Lansdale sentenced to three to six years behind bars

NORRISTOWN » A Lansdale man who police say was a crack cocaine dealer is on his way to prison on drug and weapons charges in connection after a month-long investigation by Towamencin detectives that culminated with a SWAT raid of his residence.

Dominic Marshae Lee, 26, of the 800 block of Wedgewood Drive, was sentenced in Montgomery County Court to three to six years in a state correctional facility after he pleaded guilty to felony charges of person not to possess firearms and possession with intent to deliver cocaine in connection with incidents that occurred between February and March 2017. The sentence was imposed by Judge Todd D. Eisenberg.

Towamencin detectives launched a probe into Lee’s drug-dealing activities in February 2017, according to court documents. During the course of the investigation, which included surveillance of Lee while he engaged in crack cocaine transactions, detectives received a tip that Lee

might be in possession of a semiautomatic handgun and that he displayed the weapon to various people.

As a convicted felon, according to court documents, Lee was prohibited from possessing firearms.

Authorities subsequently obtained warrants to search Lee’s residence and on the morning of March 3, Towamencin police, along with Montgomery County Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) and members of the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Drug Task Force raided Lee’s Lansdale home.

Lee was not at the residence and investigators found no crack cocaine in the residence but did find “controlled substance packaging material” and a box containing 12 rounds of .32-caliber ammunition in Lee’s bedroom, according to an affidavit of probable cause.

“This was the same packaging material that contained the crack cocaine purchased by a confidential source during controlled buys,” detectives alleged in the arrest affidavit.

Detectives learned Lee was staying with his girlfriend in Telford and they went to her residence and observed Lee get into his girlfriend’s minivan. Towamencin police, along with Souderton and Franconia police, followed the minivan and pulled the vehicle over at East Broad Street and North School Lane in Souderton and took Lee into custody for the purpose of executing a search warrant on his person, according to court documents.

As detectives questioned Lee he admitted there was a gun under the passenger seat, according to the arrest affidavit. Detectives recovered a Browning .32-caliber semi-automatic pistol in a compartment under the passenger seat and Lee admitted the gun belonged to him.

Detectives also found marijuana and a marijuana grinder in the minivan, which Lee admitted belonged to him.