On Friday, Dec. 23, at 3:40 p.m. officers of the Santa Monica Police Department were on routine patrol in the area of Colorado Avenue and 17th Street when they spotted a suspicious looking person on a bicycle who appeared to be tampering with car parked at the curbside.
The officers swung around and the bicyclist rode off, and as he did, the vehicle pulled away from the curb. The officers followed the vehicle and noticed the driver failed to yield the right of way to a pedestrian on a crosswalk at 17th Street and Broadway.
They stopped the vehicle and discovered the driver was unlicensed, so they asked him to exit the vehicle. As the driver was getting out of the vehicle the officers noticed there were several small bundles of white powder on the driver’s side floorboard and guessed the bundles were cocaine. The driver was arrested and the vehicle was searched further.
The officers discovered that there were several more small bundles of white powder hidden in the car.
The Los Angeles resident, 32, was eventually charged with possession of methamphetamine, transportation of methamphetamine, possession of cocaine, and transportation of cocaine. His bail was set at $30,000.
Editor’s Note: These reports are part of a regular police coverage series entitled “Alert Police Blotter” (APB), which injects some minor editorial into certain police activities in Santa Monica. Not all of the Mirror’s coverage of incidents involving police are portrayed in this manner. More serious crimes and police-related activities are regularly reported without editorial in the pages of the Santa Monica Mirror and its website, smmirror.com.
