Guns & Cash Seized; 21-Year-Old Drug Dealer Charged

BARNSTABLE (CBS) - A 21-year-old convicted drug dealer who was just released from jail could be heading back for a long time.

Barnstable police say Christopher Newell was a passenger in a car pulled over on Wednesday by a State Trooper in the Christmas Tree Shop parking lot in Hyannis.

The driver, 23-year-old Juliann Kusy is Newell's girlfriend. She was arrested for disorderly conduct, operating to endanger and other motor vehicle charges.

Newell, who had just finished a six month sentence for selling heroin, was allowed to leave.

Barnstable police impounded the car, got a search warrant, and found two loaded handguns, more than $3000 cash, and narcotics paraphernalia in a locked glove compartment.

Around the same time police were searching that car, someone called in a report of a suspicious vehicle in a neighboring parking lot.

Officers found Newell inside that car.

They say he may have been trying to get in to the Barnstable police lot before police investigators could find the guns.

Newell was charged with illegal possession of a large capacity firearm, being an armed career criminal, and conspiracy to violate the narcotics laws.

The charge of armed career criminal, which is for a person with 3 or more violent/drug felony convictions, carries a minimum prison sentence of 15 years.

Christopher Newell is the brother of Randall "Randy" Newell 3rd, age 24, of Yarmouth. "Randy" Newell was the victim of an unsolved March 2011 shooting in Hyannis.