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Officers Christopher Savitsky and Tomaz Cydzik smelled marijuana after stopping the red 2002 Chevrolet Malibu on northbound Route 23 in Wayne last weekend, Passaic County Sheriff Richard Berdnik said.
The clothing of both Ruben Carraballo, 31, who was driving, and 23-year-old passenger Joanna Motl, who owns the car, also reeked of pot, the sheriff said.
They were also carrying a few joints and a pot pipe with residue in the center console, he said.
A search turned up loose pot in a plastic container, a grinder and an open bottle of rum, Berdnik said.
The officers then spotted the handle of a large knife with a 12-inch fixed blade – leading to the discovery of two more fixed-blade weapons – one with a six-inch blade, the other three inches – along with two folding knives, the Smith and Wesson baton and a Umarex SA10 .177-caliber CO2 gas handgun, he said.
“The handgun was found to be loaded with a magazine that contained the CO2 cartridge and six metal pellets,” the sheriff said. “Two additional eight-pellet cylinders were attached to the magazine.”
Caraballo said he lives in a dangerous neighborhood and kept the metal baton “just to have it,” but was “unable to provide any valid reason to possess the handgun,” Berdnick said.
Caraballo, of Newark, and Motl, who lives in the Long Island town of Sayville, were processed at Wayne police headquarters on drug and weapons charges
and released, pending court hearings, under New Jersey’s 2017 bail reform law.
Both also got tickets for not wearing seatbelts, among other offenses, the sheriff said.
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