Woman, 38, Held in Seizure of Drugs

A Woodland Hills woman was being held on $500,000 bail Wednesday after police seized 40,000 methaqualone pills and other illegal drugs from her home and bank safe deposit boxes.

Shari Kay Lucas, 38, pleaded not guilty in Van Nuys Municipal Court Tuesday to four felony narcotics charges--possession for sale of cocaine, methaqualone, amphetamine and marijuana--and one felony charge of possession of an assault weapon. She was being held at Sybil Brand Institute pending a preliminary hearing scheduled for June 21.

Lucas, a saleswoman for Mary Kay cosmetics, was arrested Friday after police found 20,000 methaqualone pills, commonly known as Quaaludes, and smaller amounts of cocaine, marijuana and amphetamine in her Burbank Boulevard condominium. Several weapons also were found including a 9-millimeter Uzi assault rifle and a 12-gauge shotgun, police said.

Other evidence found in her home led police to search a safe deposit box, where they found 20,000 more pills and negotiable stocks and bonds worth $200,000, a detective said.

Los Angeles police narcotics Detective Joe Stanley said it was the largest methaqualone seizure by the department since the 1970s.

Stanley said police obtained a warrant to search Lucas’ home based on a tip from a reliable source. Lucas’ attorney Mitchell Egers, contended that the search warrant was defective.