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Ara Kouyoumdjian, 34, had the bags -- stamped "I AM BACK" -- in fully and partially sealed bricks when Officers Adrian Sulejmani and Tomasz Cydzik stopped him on the northbound highway just before 7:30 p.m. Wednesday for a cracked windshield, Detective Capt. Laurence Martin said.
The 2000 Ford Taurus also had an expired inspection sticker, the captain said.
Kouyoumdjian was sent to the Passaic County Jail pending a detention hearing.
He's charged with possession of heroin, drug paraphernalia -- two hypodermic needles, a plunger cap and two bottle caps with heroin and brown cotton residue.
He also received summonses for the windshield and expired inspection.
Some have called Route 23 the "heroin highway" for the amount of northwest New Jerseyans and New York State users who come to Paterson to buy drugs.
Police along the corridor -- as well as on Route 208 and 17 -- have stepped up enforcement to pick off those drivers before they can cause the kind of tragic carnage described in this story:
Drugged Driver In Route 23 Gas Station Crash Kills Dad, Teenage Son, Attendant
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