VIP patrols net two trafficking arrests

May 13, 2014 at 12:05a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

Police working the Violence Interruption Patrols on Saturday arrested two people on drug-trafficking charges.

Sharlissa Lawson, 24, of Cleveland was arraigned in municipal court Monday on charges of trafficking in heroin and trafficking in marijuana after she was stopped just before 11 p.m. Saturday outside a South Avenue gas station.

Reports said Lawson pulled out of the parking lot at South and East Avondale avenues and almost hit a cruiser. Her car smelled heavily of marijuana, and she appeared very nervous as if she were trying to hide something, reports said.

Inside the car, officers found a digital scale, a marijuana grinder and 14 grams of suspected heroin along with $171 in cash.

Lawson was taken to the Mahoning County jail to await her arraignment. Her bond was set at $30,000.

Earlier, about 6:35 p.m. Saturday, officers spotted a car that failed to stop at a stop sign near East Philadelphia Avenue. When they pulled it over, 23-year-old Randy Triplett of Youngstown got out and ran away, reports said.

He was chased until he was cornered near a garage in the 300 block of East Philadelphia and arrested, reports said.

Officers found a plastic bag on the route he ran, and inside, they found two 1-pound bags of suspected marijuana. He also had more than $800 cash.

Reports said the driver of the car, Mustafa Musleh, 28, had more than $500 in cash.

Musleh was arrested at the scene on a charge of permitting drug abuse and taken to the Mahoning County jail, but later released on a summons.

Triplett was arraigned Monday from the jail on a charge of trafficking in marijuana. He asked for a court-appointed attorney but was denied because of the large amount of cash he had on him. His bond information was not immediately available Monday.