Paraphernalia

Police charged a 45-year-old California woman with selling and possessing drug paraphernalia during a concert at Merriweather Post Pavilion Friday night, seizing more than 550 smoking pipes from her booth, county police said.At 7:15 p.m. Friday, Helen Carol Lewis, of Spring Valley, Calif., was charged with one count of possession of drug paraphernalia and two counts of possession with intent to distribute drug paraphernalia, police said. She was released on her own recognizance.Her arrest came after members of the department's street drug section received information that someone had set up a booth on the grounds of the concert pavilion and was selling smoking pipe paraphernalia, police said.

Southwestern District police raided a Rosemont record shop Friday night and seized a truckload of drug paraphernalia that was allegedly being sold from the store.Based on complaints from residents and tips from informants, members of the district's drug unit visited F & F Records in the 600 block of Poplar Grove St. during the day Friday. "We observed a large amount of drug paraphernalia at the business," said Sgt. Fred Bealefeld.Police obtained a search warrant and raided the store about 7: 30 p.m. They seized:More than 1 million empty gelatin capsules, which are commonly used to package heroin.

City Council President Sheila Dixon and Councilman Keiffer J. Mitchell Jr. introduced a bill yesterday to expand the city's ban on drug paraphernalia to outlaw the sale or possession of pipes or glass tubes used to smoke crack cocaine and other illegal substances. Before submitting the legislation at last night's City Council meeting, the council members held a news conference in front of a liquor store at North and Monroe streets on the city's west side, in an area overwhelmed by the illegal drug trade.

A Reisterstown man is being held on cocaine charges at the Carroll County Detention Center after being arrested during a drug raid early Saturday.Bernard H. Davis, 32, was charged with possession of cocaine and drug paraphernalia after Westminster police raided a Sullivan Avenue apartment at 3: 52 a.m. and seized suspected cocaine, paraphernalia and $1,649, police said.FireReese: Firefighters responded at 4: 10 a.m. Sunday to an oil spill on Baltimore Boulevard. Units were out 40 minutes.

Three men accused of running the biggest illegal drug paraphernalia operation ever prosecuted in Maryland pleaded guilty yesterday in federal court.During searches in March, federal agents seized 53 million glass vials, 78 pounds of cutting agents typically used to dilute heroin and cocaine, 30 scales and $230,609 in cash.Two of the Baltimore stores that sold the paraphernalia were New York Exchange in the 1800 block of Pennsylvania Ave. and New York Connection in the 5100 block of Park Heights Ave.Boris Peters, Vadim Peters and Igor Volshonok each pleaded guilty to one count of unlawful sale of drug paraphernalia.

Two Westminster men and a 17-year-old boy were arrested on charges of possession of crack cocaine and other drug offenses late Wednesday after an officer saw one of them purchase a brand of cigars police say are often used to smoke drugs.According to court records, Westminster Police Sgt. Andrew L. McKendrick saw a man buy a package of Blunt cigars at the Westminster 7-Eleven about 10 p.m. Wednesday.In his report, Sergeant McKendrick said that because the cigars are often used to smoke marijuana and crack cocaine, he tried to follow the vehicle the man and his companion were riding in. Another officer found the vehicle at the High's store on Green Street.

In a potentially precedent-setting case, a jury has convicted two men under the federal drug kingpin law for supplying Baltimore heroin dealers with the materials needed to prepare millions of dollars' worth of street-level drug sales. The case against John David Anderson, 36, of Jessup and Ronald Eric Marshall, 40, of Edgewood marked the first time in the country that the kingpin statute has been applied to paraphernalia dealers, prosecutors said. Under the law's strict penalties, both men face a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years in prison.

The heap of old tires was still there near the baseball fields in Leakin Park, as were the chairs dumped nearby, the busted computer terminal peeking up through the weeds, the electric fans, graffiti, drug bags and dozens of rusty oil barrels. A week after Mayor Martin O'Malley's administration promised to make rapid improvements in the cleanliness of the west-side park and dozens of others around the city, Reggie Wilson Sr. returned to see only a cursory response - at best - to his complaint of illegal dumping.

In the first case of its kind in the nation, a Jessup businessman was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison yesterday for selling a candy sweetener to drug dealers who used it to dilute up to $500 million worth of heroin for street sales. John David Anderson, 37, was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Baltimore by Judge Benson E. Legg after being convicted in December under the drug kingpin law, which until this case had been applied only to people who distribute drugs. Anderson ran a drug paraphernalia business with the help of several family members, including his sister Rachelle Lanett Anderson, 38, of Glen Arm Road in Baltimore County, who was found guilty of aiding and abetting drug trafficking, and sentenced yesterday to 10 years in prison.