Crime & Safety

Raid on Lawrence Home Nets Drugs, Two Arrests

Quantities of ecstasy, steroids and marijuana, along with cash, syringes and other drug paraphernalia, were allegedly seized and two Lawrence Township men arrested when the Mercer County Prosecutor's Office raided a home on Huron Way.

A two-month investigation by the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office Special Investigations Unit culminated Wednesday afternoon (July 11) with the raid of a home on Huron Way in Lawrence Township and the arrest of two Lawrence Township men on drug possession and distribution charges.

Hammad Bashir, a 31-year-old resident of the house on Huron Way, and Lawrence Wong, 29, of the 200 block of Federal City Road, were identified by the prosecutor’s office as the men who were arrested.

Allegedly found in the house during the 3:30 p.m. raid, according to Assistant Prosecutor Angelo Onofri, were 42 grams of ecstasy (24 grams in powder form, and 18 grams in pill form), eight ½-ounce vials of assorted steroids, 160 empty pill capsules, 52 syringes, four grams of marijuana and $3,200 in cash.

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As a result of those findings, Bashir was charged with possession of ecstasy, possession of ecstasy with intent to distribute, possession of steroids (four counts), possession of steroids with intent to distribute (two counts), and possession of drug paraphernalia, according to Onofri.

“He [Bashir] was manufacturing ecstasy pills in the home,” Onofri said, adding that the ecstasy that was seized Wednesday had a street value of about $3,000.

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Wong, meanwhile, was allegedly found with 25 grams of marijuana and was subsequently charged with possession of marijuana, possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, and possession of drug paraphernalia, Onofri said.

Wong was also charged with unlawful possession of a weapon because he was also allegedly found with a police-type expandable baton, and $700 in cash was confiscated from him, according to Onofri.

While Wong was released on his own recognizance following his arrest, Bashir was sent to the Mercer County Correction Center in lieu of $150,000 bail, Onofri said.

Onofri said the two-month investigation by the prosecutor’s Special Investigations Unit, under the command of Lt. Michael Novembre, was the result of “citizen complaints” about suspected criminal activity at the house on Huron Way.

Assisting with the investigation and raid were officers from Lawrence, Hamilton and Ewing townships and also the Mercer County Sheriff’s Office.

Lawrence Township property records show the house on Huron Way is owned by Qareeb and Rajeeyah Bashir, neither of whom has been charged with any crime. Qareeb Bashir, a retired battalion chief with the Trenton Fire Department, currently works as the civilian director of the fire department in Trenton.


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