Update June 5, 2021 — Prosecutors have dropped all charges against Naser Hasan, according to court records.
A suburban man faces multiple felony charges, including a Class X felony cannabis count, after police allegedly found him inside a Loop parking garage with a large amount of cash, cannabis, and THC.
“You’ve got a Class X amount of cannabis,” Judge David Navarro said to 19-year-old Naser Hasan after hearing the state’s allegations during a bond court. “You don’t really ever see Class X cannabis charges — or I don’t ever see. I don’t know about you. That’s 6- to 30 on that one, mandatory.”
Police were patrolling the parking garage at 801 South Wabash around 8:15 p.m. on April 2 when they saw a suspected hand-to-hand drug transaction near two vehicles with their trunks open on the ground floor, according to a CPD report.
The parking garage is in “an area where narcotics sales are prevalent,” the local police district later said in a tweet. The garage has also come under increased police patrol since a series of auto burglaries have been reported in Loop parking structures during March and April.
Cops tried to follow a white Mercedes that left the scene of the alleged drug transaction, but it sped away. They returned to the garage and pulled Hasan over. When they asked his name, he allegedly ran into a stairwell and struggled with a cop who tried to stop him.
Hasan and the cop fell down two flights of stairs, the CPD report says, but officers eventually took him into custody. He had $2,000 cash in his possession, prosecutors said.
Inside Hasan’s car, cops found boxes and garbage bags full of THC pens, different forms of cannabis, synthetic cannabis, a bag of “green leafy substance” labeled “Georgia Pie,” a sports drink bottle containing suspected codeine, and over $10,000 cash, police said. A source told CWBChicago that the THC pens are legal in California but not in Illinois, but officials would not confirm that information. Officers reportedly found more garbage bags and boxes filled with THC products at the spot where they first saw the suspected drug transaction unfold.
One cop was treated and released from Northwestern Memorial Hospital for injuries to his head, neck, and left knee for injuries he allegedly suffered from falling down the stairs.
Prosecutors told Judge Navarro that the state could not calculate the full value of the seized items before Hasan’s bond court appearance. Court records show prosecutors value the 12 ounces of suspected codeine at $240 and the pound of “Georgia Pie” at $5,000.
Hasan is charged with Class X manufacture-delivery of cannabis, possession of 500 to 2000 grams of Cannabis, four felony counts of possessing a controlled substance, and felony resisting.
His private defense attorney said Hasan lives with his family in Plainfield and he works at the family’s auto repair business.
Navarro set his bail at $50,000.
“Thank you your honor and we’ll fix everything ‘cuz that’s not right,” Hasan told the judge.
“Great,” Navarro mumbled to himself. “Fix it.”
Hasan went home after his father, Ashraf, posted a $5,000 deposit later the same day, according to court records.
Oddly enough, a Plainfield resident named Ashraf Hasan was accused in 2019 of shooting a pistol and detaining three people at gunpoint after he allegedly caught them stealing from his hemp farm, according to the Plainfield Patch.
The news site reported Hasan, 43, “allegedly told police that his farm was having a problem with thieves stealing his plants.”
“Hemp is technically a strain of the cannabis plant, but it is grown for industrial use and does not produce a high when ingested,” according to the report.
The outcome of that case was not immediately available.