LAWRENCE — A candy tin, a sandwich bag box and pill bottles were used by a 51-year-old grandmother to hide drugs, police said.
The city's street narcotics enforcement unit arrested Caridad Hernandez on Wednesday about 6:30 a.m., after a search of her 32 1âÑ2 Morton St. apartment uncovered 26 grams of crack cocaine, 16.6 grams of powder cocaine, $1,085 in cash, two plastic bags with 28 Seroquel 200 pills and drug packaging materials, according to police reports.
Hernandez was arrested in front of her 8-year-old granddaughter, who was in the home at the time, and charged with trafficking cocaine over 28 grams, trafficking cocaine over 28 grams within 1,000 feet of a school zone and illegal possession of a prescription drug with intent to distribute.
Police obtained a warrant to search the apartment after making a couple of undercover drug buys, Chief John Romero said.
"We had gotten information from neighborhood complaints," Romero said.
He said the state Department of Social Services was notified because of the presence of the granddaughter.
