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Port Authority PD: Man Accused Of Shooting Himself Busted For Pot At GWB

FORT LEE, N.J. -- The smell of pot smoke drew Port Authority police's attention to a car with a bogus license plate and a driver from Paterson who had no license, registration or insurance at the George Washington Bridge toll plaza, authorities said Tuesday.

Marcel Priest

Marcel Priest

Photo Credit: Courtesy LODI PD

His passenger had been freed earlier this year after authorities said he shot himself with an illegal handgun and then lied about it.

Officers smelled the burnt marijuana when the Daniel N. Morgan, 23, rolled down the window of his 2003 Taurus to pay the upper-level toll Sunday afternoon, the authority's Joseph Pentangelo said.

The Taurus had no front license plate and a rear plate that belonged to a rental car that expired in 2004, he said.

In the ashtray was a partially smoked joint, Pentangelo said.

Morgan, who "appeared to be drowsy and sluggish," also was wanted on a warrant out of Paterson, he said.

He and his passenger, 22-year-old Marcel N. Priest of Prosect Park, were taken into custody, and the Taurus was was impounded, Pentangelo said.

Both were charged with drug possession. Morgan also received traffic summonses before being turned over to Paterson police on the warrant. Priest was released pending a court hearing.

Lodi undercover detectives arrested Priest two years ago after they said he sold them heroin.

He was busted again this past April -- this time, the Passaic County Prosecutor's Office said, after he went to the hospital with a self-inflicted gunshot wound and claimed someone else was responsible.

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