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Officer Brian Gallina saw the driver of the white Lexus make an illegal U-turn on West Passaic Street on Sunday morning and pull into a mostly empty parking lot of a business there, Lt. Dean Pinto said.
One of the men got out, went into the business and emerged with a small handbag, Pinto said.
The driver at first pulled out of the lot but then drove back in after spotting Gallina, Detective Sgt. James M. DePreta told Daily Voice.
Galina pulled the car over, he said.
After smelling burnt marijuana from inside, he and backup Officer Brian Cobb searched the car and found two plastic bags each of heroin and cocaine packaged for sale, DePreta said.
The driver, 35-year-old Miguel Pacheco-Ortiz of Cape Coral, was carrying $2,500 in cash packaged with the drugs, he said.
His passenger, Roberto Navarro, 42, of Fort Meyers, was carrying some pot and $2,300 in cash, the sergeant said.
Police arrested both and seized the drugs and cash, he said.
Pacheco-Ortiz was ordered held in the Bergen County Jail pending a detention hearing in Central Judicial Processing Court in Hackensack.
Navarro was released pending a court appearance, under New Jersey's 2017 bail reform law.
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