Port Authority police find dozing defendant in Fort Lee court carrying heroin, cocaine straw

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: A man waiting to answer drug charges in Fort Lee Municipal Court kept nodding off — and was found carrying four bags of heroin in a cigarette pack and both a $20 bill and clear plastic straw with cocaine residue, Port Authority police said.

Photo Credit: *Courtesy PORT AUTHORITY PD*

Jerry DeMarco

05/13/2015 1:36 p.m.

Carlos D. Ortiz, 32, of the Bronx had bloodshot eyes, “white powder visible in his nostrils” and couldn’t sit up straight when Police Officer Frank Emblen approached him yesterday afternoon, the authority’s Joseph Pentangelo told CLIFFVIEW PILOT this morning.

Court personnel repeatedly tried to wake Ortiz, “but he continually nodded off,” Pentangelo said.

Arrested for contempt of court, Ortiz was searched and was found carrying the cocaine-laced bill and straw in his pants pocket, along with the heroin, he said.

He “made statements that he had used cocaine the evening before,” Pentangelo said.

Ortiz was ordered held on $15,000 bail in the Bergen County Jail, charged with two counts of drug opssession.

MUGSHOT: Courtesy PORT AUTHORITY PD

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