Santa Monica police arrested a 37-year-old man on Thursday, Feb. 26, after finding four baggies of cocaine and methamphetamine hidden in the steering column of a driver’s truck.
Officers of the Santa Monica Police Department were on a routine patrol at 1 pm in the area of Second St. and Arizona Ave. when they initiated a traffic stop for a window tint violation.
Initially the vehicle, a truck, failed to yield to the officers’ flashing lights and siren, but eventually did stop.
The officers walked toward the vehicle and noticed that the drivers’ side window was rolled down half way and that they could see the driver fiddling with something under the steering column.
The officers then spoke with the driver of the vehicle and noticed that he was sweating profusely and behaving in a nervous manner.
This made the officers suspicious, and they questioned the driver further and discovered that he had recently finished parole for numerous drug related charges.
The officers asked the driver if he was in possession of any narcotics, and he said that he was not.
The officers asked the driver if they could search his vehicle and he gave them permission.
The officers immediately looked in the area of the steering column and discovered four baggies.
Each baggy contained either a white powder-like substance or a white crystalline-type substance.
The officers determined that there was a strong likelihood that these substances were cocaine and methamphetamine respectively.
The driver of the truck claimed that these baggies were the property of a friend.
The driver, a resident of Sylmar, was charged with for possession, sales, and transportation of a controlled substance.
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.
