Man charged with selling cocaine

LIBERTY -- Police charged a 29-year-old township man with three counts of trafficking in cocaine after six months of investigation.
Laquawn Hopkins, 29, of Hadley Avenue, was arrested by township police and agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms on Tuesday morning. He is in the Trumbull County Jail.
"We learned more than a year ago that this guy was selling cocaine and started an undercover operation with the ATF six months ago," Liberty police Capt. Rich Tisone said. "He has been dealing out of that location for quite some time."
Tisone said officers found a range of drug paraphernalia when raiding Hopkins' apartment: small plastic bags with cocaine residue, baking soda, cooking pots and other things.
Tisone said officers had raided the apartment building in early December looking for another man living with Hopkins and found a large amount of cash, 135 grams of cocaine and pills hidden in an adjacent apartment. He said police were told that Hopkins stored the items there.
Tisone said Hopkins likely picked the Hadley address because it is a quiet neighborhood and he would be less likely to face competition in the immediate vicinity.
"Getting him out of that neighborhood and locked up will be a real advantage to us," Tisone said.