Police: Stolen gun, drugs found when Arnold woman’s home raided by task force agents
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An Arnold woman faces felony gun charges after police say they found a stolen gun and evidence of a drug dealing operation when they raided her house.
Mariah Relyn Lewis, 25, of the 1600 block of Fourth Avenue, was charged with felony counts of illegal possession of a firearm and receiving stolen property as well as drug possession.
She is in the Westmoreland County jail after failing to post a $75,000 cash bond, according to court records. She faces a preliminary hearing before District Judge Frank J. Pallone Jr. on March 3.
Lewis was arrested Feb. 16 after Arnold police and agents from the state Attorney General’s Office and the Westmoreland County Drug Task Force broke through the front door of her house to execute a search warrant, according to the criminal complaint.
Police detained Lewis and her 1-year-old child while officers searched the home. Authorities said the officers discovered a trap door leading to a hidden compartment, police said. Inside the compartment was a plastic bag with a loaded Star 9mm semiautomatic pistol that was reported as stolen by the Manor Township Police Department, according to the complaint.
A digital scale and a plastic spoon also were found in the bag, police said.
When police searched other parts of the house, they found a bag of suspected crack cocaine as well as marijuana, a safe with material used to package drugs for sale and five cellphones, the complaint said.
Police noted in the complaint that Lewis previously was convicted of a felony drug charge and is not permitted to possess a gun.
Court records show that Lewis pleaded guilty to possession of drugs with the intent to deliver last June 8 and was sentenced to nine months in jail and two years of probation.