Oakland restaurant owner charged

Authorities are attempting to shut down a South Oakland pizza shop after its owner was arrested Tuesday for possession of about half a kilo of cocaine, a pound of marijuana and dozens of oxycontin pills.

According to the affidavit listing the charges against Fadi Aboud, 35, who owns Larry and Carol’s Pizza Restaurant, the pizza shop located at 410 Semple St. is the scene of major alleged drug activity. The indictment includes five counts of using a communication device to set up a cocaine transaction, 16 counts of possessing cocaine with the intent to distribute, one count of possessing marijuana with the intent to distribute and one count of possessing oxycontin with the intent to distribute.

The charges also include 12 counts of possession of cocaine, perkoset, oxycontin and marijuana. Aboud is also charged with two counts of possession of paraphernalia.

Mike Manko, a spokesman for the office of Allegheny County District Attorney David Zappala, said in an email that Zappala is in the process of having the restaurant, which is located less than a mile from Pitt’s campus, declared a public nuisance and shut down.

An unidentified party at Larry and Carol’s Pizza Restaurant hung up the phone when the restaurant was contacted multiple times Tuesday evening.

According to the district attorney’s affidavit, law enforcement officers began intercepting Aboud’s phone communications last February after an informant allegedly told a police officer that he or she had seen cocaine in the back of the shop.

The arrest followed six months of investigation by the district attorney’s Narcotics Enforcement Team, the Pennsylvania State Police Bureau of Drug Law Enforcement and officers from Wilkins Township, Swissvale, North Versailles and McKees Rocks.

They arrested Aboud at his restaurant, where they recovered substantial amounts of cocaine and Oxycontin.

Authorities later searched his home in the lower Hill District, where they recovered additional cocaine, additional Oxycontin and Percocet. They also found a large press allegedly designed “to package and sell cocaine.”

Aboud is currently awaiting arraignment.