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High bail shocks suspect

Hasan Shareef

Flabbergasted by his $750,000 bail, suspected big-time drug dealer Hasan Shareef's immediate question came as no surprise.

“Where am I going to get that kind of money?” he asked District Judge Sue Haggerty while being video arraigned Friday night at the Butler County Prison on drug trafficking and felony weapons charges.

Only hours earlier, state police uncovered a cache of heroin, cocaine, crack, money, guns and ammo at a Butler duplex where Shareef had been staying — and allegedly dealing.

The discovery of what appeared to be Shareef's not-so-ordinary drug trafficking operation was not lost on Haggerty.

In addition to Friday's findings, she cited the 40-year-old's lengthy felony drug record, amassed in multiple states, and the gravity of his current charges, for her decision to set a not-so-ordinary bail.

She told him if he didn't like it, to take it up with another judge at his preliminary hearing June 6.

Police by chance arrested Shareef, originally from New York, at an upstairs apartment at 1004 E. Jefferson St. while serving a search warrant for an unrelated burglary in Muddy Creek Township.

When several troopers got there about 10:50 a.m., they came upon the defendant in the attic, where he was trying to escape or dump evidence, according to court documents.

He eventually complied with officers' commands to stop, but not before cutting himself on glass from two windows broken during his apparently aborted getaway plan.

Shareef was searched and found to be carrying $2,570, police said. He also had New York identification in his wallet.

While at that home, troopers noticed guns and drug contraband, which led them to get a second search warrant.

Seized during the secondary search were 407 stamp bags of suspected heroin, five bags of powder cocaine, seven bags of crack cocaine and another $5,957 in currency, according to charging documents.

Police also found an additional bag that contained a “chunk” of crack, 25 unopened and 14 opened Suboxone strips and prescription pills, according to charging documents.

Still more confiscated evidence included digital scales, other drug paraphernalia, two loaded pistols, a shotgun and ammunition scattered about the apartment.

Shareef was alone at the home when police arrived.

During Shareef's arraignment, Haggerty asked him if he lived at the duplex.

“I'm just sleeping there,” he said.

Shareef claimed he was homeless but acknowledged his family lives in Yonkers, N.Y. He also acknowledged he was unemployed

Haggerty arraigned Shareef on several felonies for possession and trafficking of drugs and for illegal possession of firearms.

Because of his criminal record, he is barred under state law from having guns.

The full extent of Shareef's criminal history was not immediately available, since it covers as many as five states, authorities said.

In Pennsylvania, court records showed, he has felony drug convictions in three cases in 2006.

Talking about the arrest on his street, Stewart Rapone, who lives at 1000½ E. Jefferson St., said that 10 to 15 people would stop at 1004 E. Jefferson St. at all hours of the day and night. He would leave for work at 4 a.m. and see people coming and going.

“They wouldn't be in there very long,” he said. “It was always under three minutes. It was pretty obvious what they were doing.”

Eagle staff writer Aaron McKrell contributed to this report.

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