MONTVALE, N.J.—While conducting a drug enforcement detail on Dec. 5, officers observed a gray Nissan Sentra traveling north on the Garden State Parkway, just head of them.
The defendant slowed, and repeatedly hit the white line, almost driving onto the rumble strips. He then slowed abruptly to below 50 mph. The vehicle also had a overdue inspection sticker.
Officers initiated a motor vehicle stop on the parkway. An officer approached the passenger side of the vehicle, noting the driver was moving around possibly to conceal something.
“I immediately noticed he was very nervous, frantically looking for his wallet. I then looked at his eyes, which were very glazed, and pupils were constricted,” the reporting officer said.
The defendant said he was coming from his grandmother’s house in southern New Jersey.
He could not clearly answer followup questions.
After notifying the defendant of his observations, the officer asked him if he would step out of the vehicle.
“I asked if there was anything illegal in the vehicle. He immediately confessed there was a hypodermic needle in the dashboard compartment with a bunch of empty heroin wax folds,” the report reads in part.
The defendant was read his rights. It also was shown that he had a $500 warrant out of Fair Lawn, and a suspended New Jersey driver’s license.
In a consent search, officers found a hypodermic needle and many empty heroin wax folds, as the defendant stated. Officers found additional used wax folds under the front passenger seat in a plastic bag.
The defendant was arrested for possession of a hypodermic needle. He was handcuffed—double locked—and placed in the back of a police car.
At headquarters he was given a new court date for the warrant.
He also was charged with possession of heroin, possession of drug paraphernalia, failure to have inspection, failure to maintain lane, delaying traffic, driving while suspended, and possession of a controlled dangerous substance in a motor vehicle.
