Police: Lynn drug suspect trying to flee nearly hit officer with car

LYNN – A judge ordered $50,000 cash bail for a city man police allegedly saw driving the wrong way down the street and who then allegedly nearly ran over an officer before being arrested with 50 packets of suspected heroin and seven packets of suspected cocaine.”(The suspect) looked directly at all of us and put the motor vehicle in reverse, trying to leave,” Lynn Police Officer Stephen Emery wrote in a report. “Det. (Michael) Ferraro had to immediately jump out of the way in fear of getting struck by the motor vehicle.”Javier Pena-Abreu, 21, of 103 Essex St. 2R, was arrested and charged with possession with intent to distribute Class B cocaine; trafficking in heroin; assault with a dangerous weapon, a motor vehicle; a wrong-way violation; and failure to signal; at 3 p.m. Wednesday.He was arraigned on the charges Thursday in Lynn District Court where a plea of not guilty was entered on his behalf.Undercover police on Wednesday afternoon reported seeing a brown Mercury turn right from Essex to Jackson streets without using a directional and then beginning to drive the wrong way up the street, according to police reports.Police said the driver picked up a passenger then continued traveling the wrong way up the street, “causing gridlock for cars and buses.”When the Mercury pulled into a driveway to let traffic go by, an officer allegedly approached the vehicle with his badge displayed. The Mercury allegedly fled, but it was boxed in at a red light by officers a few minutes later.The driver of the Mercury allegedly tried to flee again, prompting an officer to jump out of the way of the vehicle. Police subsequently handcuffed and searched the driver, identified as Pena-Abreu, and found a clear plastic bag containing 48 smaller plastic twists of suspected heroin; two separate twists of suspected heroin; a clear plastic bag with seven twists of suspected cocaine; two cell phones and $603 cash, according to police. Police said the suspected heroin weighed more than 30 grams.Essex Assistant District Attorney Justin Edwards requested Pena-Abreu be held on $50,000 cash bail and requested that bail in one of Pena-Abreu’s three open cases be revoked. Defense attorney Francis O’Brien Jr. argued that the open cases were comparably minor to the new offense and said his client would plead out rather than have his bail revoked on that case.Judge Cathleen Campbell ordered $50,000 cash bail for the new charges and scheduled Pena-Abreu to appear before the court Friday, where he pleaded out to one of the open cases. Pena-Abreu remains held, however, on the $50,000 cash bail, according to court documents.