YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: Cresskill detectives grabbed three men who they said were carrying 72 bags of heroin, 120 Xanax pills and a small amount of pot.
A caller alerted police to a white van weaving on Knickerbocker Road around 7:10 p.m. Thursday, Detective Jason Lanzilotti told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.
They found the van parked in front of a house in the 90 block of Knickerbocker Road.
The lone occupant, 25-year-old Victor Cabassa of Pompton Plains, “appeared to be extremely nervous and was unable to give any account for the whereabouts of the driver,” said Lanzilotti, one of the officers on the call.
A patdown turned up a small amount of marijuana, the detective said.
Officer Niall Bresnan found the driver — later identified as Patrick Boyd, 23, of Pequannock — in the back of the house.
“After receiving conflicting stories from the driver and passenger, we determined that [Boyd] was delivering heroin and xanex to a resident,” identified as Patrick Foley, 28, Lanzilotti said.
Foley, in fact, “admitted that we interrupted the delivery,” he said.
A search of the home and of the vehicle — the latter with the help of a Bergen County Sheriff’s Office K9 unit — turned up the drugs and $1,300 in suspected proceeds, which were all seized.
Boyd was charged with possession of 24 bags of heroin, distribution of 58 bags of heroin and possession of 40 Xanax.
Foley was charged with possession of 58 bags of heroin and possession of marijuana.
Cabassa was charged with marijuana possession.
All were released pending a Municipal Court hearing.
Lanzilotti said the arrests were an example of his department taking a proactive approach to the twin problems of heroin and prescription drug addiction.
Those efforts have been boosted by Cresskill Police Chief Edward Wrixon, who, along with other chiefs in Bergen County, loan officers to the Prosecutor John L. Molinelli’s Narcotics Task Force for major drug investigations.
MUGSHOTS: Courtesy CRESSKILL PD