House loses in Westend gambling room

Navasota Police have made arrests following a two-month investigation in connection with a gambling room at Westend Grocery.

According to Navasota Police Chief Shawn Myatt, Adrian Anwar, 31 and Atef Qureshi, 49, were arrested and booked into the Grimes County Jail Friday, Sept. 20.

Myatt said they received numerous complaints about gambling at Westend Grocery, 307 W. Washington. Navasota police were told of various crimes that occurred in the store due to the gambling room.

A search warrant for illegal electronic gambling devices was obtained and resulted in multiple devices being found in a secluded room. The machines were then disassembled.

During the execution of the search warrant, officers located glass pipes used for smoking controlled substances. Over 800 pieces of drug paraphernalia were seized.

“The store is obviously assisting in illegal drug use by providing paraphernalia to customers as well as illegally obtained pills without a license or prescription,” said Myatt.

Officers also discovered a jar of IWD pills that were determined to be from Mexico. The pills contain sildenafil citrate which is a prescription only drug commonly found in Viagra. Importing pills from Mexico is a federal violation. Officers seized 120 pills.

Medication in Mexico doesn’t meet U.S. regulations. Often medication in Mexico is considered mystery medication because it is unknown what all is in the medication.

Anwar and Quereshi are charged with Delivery of Drug Paraphernalia, a Class A misdemeanor; Delivery of a Dangerous Drug, a state jail felony; Keeping Gambling Place, Class A misdemeanor and Gambling Promotion, Class A misdemeanor.