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YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: Police from various towns joined in a chase that ended with a crash at the southbound Route 17 exit onto eastbound Route 3 — and the discovery of a pound and a half of pot in the trunk of a car driven by a drunk, uninsured motorist, Mahwah police said this morning.
The chase started just after 2:30 a.m. Saturday when a 1992 Toyota Celica came speeding down Route 17 in Mahwah.
Mahwah Police Officer Stacy Conley pulled his patrol car across the highway, with its lights on, when the Celica veered onto the shoulder and kept going, a news release says.
The chase was on, with patrol cars from Bergen County, Paramus, Rutherford and Lyndhurst police all joining in.
As the driver took the turn off 17 onto 3, he lost control. The car rolled several times and ended up in the oncoming lane, police said.
The driver — identified as 26-year-old Shahan Momin of Monroe, N.Y. — was placed under arrest and taken by Lyndhurst EMS to Hackensack University Medical Center, where police said he was treated and admitted for serious back and arm fractures. Tests showed he was also intoxicated, police said.
Inside the trunk of Momin’s car, they said, they found the pot, along with paraphernalia used to distribute it. They charged him with pot possession with the intent to distribute it, eluding police, DWI and a host of traffic offenses: speeding, unsafe lane changes, fail to yield to emergency vehicles, reckless driving, having a controlled dangerous substance in a motor vehicle, and being uninsured.
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