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Officer Jeffrey Welsh stopped the 2012 Honda sedan on West Broadway near Cliff Street shortly before 10:30 p.m. Saturday.
Welsh quickly smelled marijuana, searched the driver – identified as Edwardo Rivera, 32, of East Stroudsburg, PA – and found him carrying $897 in suspected drug money in his pants pocket, Lt. George Guzman said.
Backed up by Police Officer Semir Celoski and Special Police Officer Wassim Helwani, Welsh found the passenger -- Tyshon Adams, 32 -- carrying a small bag of pot in his front jacket pocket, Guzman said.
Still smelling the drug, Welsh checked the trunk, where he found the larger amount of marijuana packaged in several small bags, along with a digital scale, the lieutenant said.
New Jersey is on the verge of enacting laws that would allow adults 21 and over to buy and have up to an ounce of pot or five grams of concentrated cannabis at a time. Anything over that would still remain grounds for a charge.
Rivera, who claimed ownership of the bag, was arrested on drug charges. He also received a summons for the faulty light.
Police also arrested Adams, who Guzman said lied about his identity and was wanted on a warrant out of Paterson. They charged him with hindering and minor pot possession.
Rivera was released pending a first appearance in Central Judicial Processing Court in Paterson. Adams was turned over to city police on the warrant.
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