Illegal parking ends in gun, drug charges
Lowell men face serious charges after parking in a handicap space.
Two Lowell men were arrested Tuesday after a police officer who had approached them for parking illegally in a handicap spot found an unlicensed gun and two large bags of marijuana in the vehicle, police said.
At about 12:30 p.m., a patrol officer noticed a vehicle idling in a handicap spot outside Walmart at Drum Hill Shopping Center. A passenger — later identified as Sari Rath, 33 — was inside the vehicle, police said.
When the driver, Vuthy Ke, 39, emerged from Walmart, officers discovered that neither he nor Rath had a handicap placard.
When Rath opened the glove compartment, an officer saw the handle of a black handgun inside. Both men were then handcuffed, Assistant District Attorney Amy Parker said in court.
Upon searching the vehicle, police discovered an unlicensed handgun with 12 rounds in a magazine in the glove compartment, and two large, vacuumsealed bags of marijuana in the trunk. They also found a white substance, which they believe to be cocaine, inside a folded $10 bill in Ke’s wallet, Parker said.
The two men were arrested. Ke was charged with possession of a firearm without a permit, possession of a large capacity feeding device, illegal possession of ammunition, possession of a
Class D substance with intent to distribute, and illegal possession of a Class B substance.
Rath was charged with possession of a firearm without a permit, possession of a large capacity feeding device and illegal possession of ammunition.
Parker requested Ke be held on $5,000 cash bail, and Rath be
held on $10,000 cash bail and have his bail revoked in an open Middlesex Superior Court case. In that case, Rath is charged with trafficking cocaine and possessing an unlicensed firearm, Parker said during the arraignment.
“There’s absolutely nothing to indicate, judge, that he (Rath) had any knowledge whatsoever that there was a firearm in the glove box,” attorney Steve Rappaport, who represented Rath, said in court Wednesday. The firearm, Rappaport argued, was not in plain sight and Rath was not the driver.
Judge Patrick Malone ordered Ke held on $2,500 cash bail, and revoked Rath’s bail in his open superior court case.
Both defendants are scheduled for their next hearings on Feb. 24.