Paterson cops seize semi-automatic handgun, crack cocaine, pot in Christmas Eve traffic stop
By Jonathan Greene
Published: December 26, 2018
The police seized a semi-automatic handgun, more than two dozen bags of crack cocaine, and 460 packets of heroin during a Christmas Eve motor vehicle stop on Clinton Street, police director Jerry Speziale said on Wednesday night.
Police arrested the driver, Frank Warren III, 36, of Paterson. He is charged with four weapons offenses and five drug offenses, police said.
Detectives Martin Luizzi and John Farfan observed Warren’s green Chevrolet sedan that matched the description of a vehicle used in a robbery few days earlier on North Main Street and Haledon Avenue at around 9:55 p.m.
Warren was pulled over on Clinton Street and Presidential Boulevard with back-up assistance from other police officers.
Police observed a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun inside the vehicle. A search yielded 460 glassine envelopes of heroin, 27 bags of crack cocaine and 2 baggies of marijuana, police said.
The seized weapon will be sent to the New Jersey State Police Ballistics Lab for examination.
Detectives James Jenkins, Rene Alicea, William Hermann, Luis Fernandez, and sergeant Rick LaTrecchia of the Street Crime Unit assisted in the stop and investigation, Speziale said.
This report was amended to reflect 460 packets of heroin was seized during the bust. Updated at 9:57 p.m. [J].