Police: Home raid netted suspected marijuana dealer
LANSDALE >> An early morning raid on a Lansdale residence over the weekend by Towamencin and Montgomery County law enforcement authorities has led to marijuana-dealing charges against a 23-year-old borough man.
Chad James Lockhart, of the first block of East Main Street, faces one count each of felony possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance, misdemeanor resisting arrest, misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia and misdemeanor receipt in commerce of a controlled substance.
Towamencin detectives said in an affidavit of probable cause that after obtaining a search and sei-
zure warrant for Lockhart’s residence on Aug. 19 in connection with an ongoing drug investigation, Towamencin police and members of the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Local
Drug Task Force raided the home just before 8 a.m. on Aug. 20.
A detective saw Lockhart — whom the officer recognized from observing him selling marijuana to a confidential source during a controlled buy — attempting to flee, according to the affidavit. Lockhart disregarded repeated
orders to stop and tried to get out of the residence but he was eventually taken into custody, police said.
Authorities located and seized from Lockhart’s home 12 bags each containing approximately 30 grams of marijuana — a total of more than threequarters of a pound of the drug — as well as $1,200 in
cash, including eight bills that were provided to confidential sources by detectives prior to controlled buys, according to court documents.
T hree dig ital sc a les, a bag of suspected marijuana seeds and several cellphones were also seized from the residence, court documents indicate.
No one else was arrested or charged in connection with the raid, although an unspecified number of people who were in the house at the time of the raid fled to an upstairs section of the building in which police were authorized to enter, and some were briefly detained before it was determined that they were
not involved in any criminal activity, according to law enforcement authorities involved in the case.
Lockhart is currently locked up at Montgomery County Correctional Facility in lieu of $25,000 cash bail while awaiting his Sept. 1 preliminary hearing in Lansdale district court.