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The North Carolina mini-van was stopped just before noon Tuesday on Route 4 near the George Washington Bridge for having tinted windows, a violation of New Jersey motor vehicle laws, Police Capt. Thomas Ottina said this morning.
Detective T.J. Cullen, of the department’s Anti-Crime Unit, ran the vehicle’s registration, which came back suspended, so he pulled it over at the bridge’s upper-level toll plaza, the captain said.
Talking with passenger Jeremy Brewton of Charlotte, N.C., Cullen smelled marijuana, Ottina said. After obtaining the driver’s consent to search the mini-van, the detective found a 12-gauge Mossberg shotgun loaded with two shells, the captain said.
Brewton “claimed responsibility for the weapon and was arrested,” he said. A search turned up pot in his boots, Ottina added.
Brewton, 28, was released after posting $2,500 cash bail on charges of possession of a loaded shotgun, possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia.
A couple of hours later, members of Fort Lee’s Anti-Crime/Narcotics Unit busted a 24-year-old Montvale man they’d been investigating for selling pot in town, Ottina said.
Robert J. Martini was in the middle of selling a quarter-pound of marijuana at the Fort Lee Towne Center on Schlosser Street — and had another two ounces in his car, the captain said. Martini posted 10% of his $25,000 bail and was released pending a hearing on various pot distribution charges.
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