Passaic Sheriff: Paterson Liquor Store Loiterer Caught With 34 Bags Of Heroin, Knife

A Passaic County sheriff’s officer found a Paterson man carrying nearly three dozen bags of cocaine while loitering with a group of others outside a city liquor store, authorities said.

Ignacio Ortiz
Photo Credit: *MUGSHOT: Courtesy PASSAIC COUNTY SHERIFF*

Jerry DeMarco

08/11/2019 8:50 a.m.

Ignacio Ortiz, 24, tried concealing a folding knife in his pocket when Officer Timothy Convery approached the group near the corner of Park Avenue and East 18th Street early Friday night and asked them all to show ID, Sheriff Richard H. Berdnik said.

Besides the knife, Ortiz had 16 small, clear pink bags of heroin in his pocket, along with a lip balm container that held another 18, the sheriff said.

He also had two Oxycodone pills and $390 in suspected drug proceeds, he said.

Ortiz was charged with various drug counts, as well as illegal weapons possession, Berdnik said. He also received a summons for failing to disperse.

He was released pending an Aug. 23 first appearance in Central Judicial Processing Court in Paterson.

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