NEW CUMBERLAND — Ten months after the Hancock County Sheriff’s Department and members of the Brooke-Hancock-Weirton Drug Task Force raided a Newell convenience store, the case against the store’s owner is heading to circuit court.

Abdulrashid Alhawshabi, of Weirton, owner of Phillies Quick Stop, located at 106 Washington St., appeared Thursday before Hancock County Magistrate Ralph Fletcher, waiving a preliminary hearing on two counts of possession or intent to deliver a Schedule I or II narcotic.

Earlier this year, the store’s manager, Hamdan Alhawshabi, accepted a plea to a misdemeanor charge of one count of possession of a controlled substance without a prescription, which resulted in a $150 fine plus costs, suspended six-month jail sentence and an agreement to not sell CBD (cannabidiol) or THC (Tetrahydrocannabinol, which is the psychoactive ingredient in the cannabis plant) products as well as promised to card potential customers to verify they meet the state’s legal age requirement to purchase tobacco, lottery tickets and alcoholic beverages.

In March, members of the Hancock-Brooke-Weirton Drug Task Force, along with Hancock County deputies, executed a search warrant at the store as part of an investigation into alleged sales of products to persons under age 21 and that exceed the legal limit of 0.3% THC within the state of West Virginia.

(Ujhelyi can be contacted at sujhelyi@mojonews.com)