Parolee Used Motel Room For Crack-Cocaine Operation: Police

LAKE COUNTY, IL — A parolee from Round Lake Beach is behind bars again after authorities uncovered a crack-cocaine operation and a semiautomatic firearm in a hotel room in Waukegan, authorities said.

Tommie D. Harris, 32, of the 200 block of East Hawthorne Drive in Round Lake Beach, is charged with unlawful possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute, a Class 2 felony; two counts of aggravated unlawful use/possession of a weapon, a Class 2 felony; and two counts of unlawful use/possession of a weapon by a felon, a Class 3 felony.

Authorities searched his Waukegan motel room Friday.

Harris, who is currently on parole in an aggravated discharge of a firearm case, was arrested following the search, which turned up a semiautomatic firearm with a drum magazine and a revolver, crack cocaine and marijuana inside the motel room in the 600 block of South Green Bay Road in Waukegan, authorities said.

Harris had been using the motel room to manufacture crack cocaine from powder cocaine, according to the news release.

Harris is being held at the Lake County Jail on a $150,000 bail. He is next expected in court on Thursday at 9 a.m.