A city man will forfeit ill-gotten gains and spend a year on probation after police raided his Lawn Street home and found almost 100 marijuana plants and related distribution supplies.
The case against a second defendant has not been adjudicated.
Det. Lt. David Ragazzini, the supervisor of the department’s detective bureau, reports that a narcotics investigation revealed indications that the residents of 3 Lawn St. – Philip M. Panidis, 26, and Antonio Dones, 31, –were engaged in growing and marketing marijuana.
A warrant was sought and granted.
When officers descended on the single family house the two suspects had rented, they found, according to a document filed at Westfield District Court to support a criminal complaint, 92 marijuana plants as well as marijuana packaged for sale, packaging materials, scales, growing equipment, cash, and a ledger.
Ragazzini said that Panidis was at home when the warrant was executed and he was arrested.
He said that Dones was not at the house, which is reported to be 174 feet inside the 1,000 foot exclusion zone around Westfield High School, and a criminal complaint was filed against him.
Because he was arrested, Panidis was arraigned first and went to trial in Westfield District Court.
In court, charges of possession of a Class D drug with intent to distribute and a drug violation near a school or park were not prosecuted.
However, Panidis submitted to facts sufficient to warrant a guilty finding for a charge of distribution of a Class D drug and the charge was continued without a finding with probation for one year, he was assessed $50 and was ordered to perform 50 hours of community service.
Ragazzini said that the ledger found in the house not only revealed the financial records of the operation but also showed that funds were withdrawn which were equal to the amount paid the next day for a 2002 Chevrolet Avalon.
The court ordered that the car, along with more than $3,000 discovered at the house, be forfeited.
Dones, who was summoned to court to answer the same charges as Panidis, was arraigned on those charges on April 4. He was released on his personal recognizance and is due to return to court on July 3 for a pre-trial hearing.
