YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: A Nanuet driver stopped by Palisades Interstate Parkway police for rolling through a stop sign at a parkway rest stop had several bags of heroin in his underwear, authorities said.
Palisades Interstate Parkway police this morning also confirmed that an upstate New York man was extradited to New Jersey over the weekend to face charges of having five ounces of cocaine in his car.
Muhammed Wesley refused to consent of a search of the vehicle after PIP police stopped him on the parkway on Nov. 11. He was released while they held onto the car and obtained a search warrant.
After finding the drugs, police obtained a warrant for Wesley, who was picked up in Binghampton, N.Y. before being extradited over the weekend.
Wesley was being held on $262,000 bail in the Bergen County Jail, charged with a variety of drug offenses. His passenger that day remains at large, Acting Palisades Interstate Parkway Police Chief Michael Coppola told CLIFFVIEW PILOT this morning.
Last Monday night, Coppola’s officers arrested two Rockland men after a routine traffic stop turned up heroin.
Detective Jeff Kimbro and Officer Michael Griffin were at the northbound Sunoco station in Englewood Cliffs just before 11 p.m. when they saw a 2014 Mercedes Benz blow the stop sign for getting back onto the parkway, Coppola said.
Both the driver and passenger “appeared very nervous when talking with officers,” he said, adding that “an odor of Marijuana was detected coming from within the vehicle.”
During a search, Kimbro turned up two hypodermic syringes on the driver, 24-year-old Louis. P. Cucolo of Nanuet (above, left), as well as eight bags of heroin in his underwear, the chief said.
The officers found four more bags on the passenger, Scully Tyler, 23, of West Nyack (above, right), Coppola said.
Both were released on court appearance tickets charging possession of heroin. Cucolo also was charged with possession of drug paraphernalia, the chief said.
MUGSHOTS: Courtesy PALISADES INTERSTATE PARKWAY PD