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Officer Jared Shatkin followed a Toyota Corolla into the parking lot of the Ramada Inn around 11 p.m. after the driver failed to signal the turn, Detective James DePreta said this morning.
The driver — identified as 35-year-old Miguel Ortiz III — then “appeared to make several anxious maneuvers,” DePreta said.
He then tried to quickly position his car in several parking spaces, narrowly missing a light post, before stopping in two spots, the detective said.
Shatkin noticed Ortiz was sweating and breathing quickly as he approached. Then he caught the smell of marijuana, DePreta said.
After removing Ortiz, the officer spotted a bag of marijuana on the driver’s seat, he said. A search involving a Bergen County Sheriff’s K9 unit turned up the remaining drugs, DePreta said.
Ortiz was being held on $97,500 bail in the Bergen County Jail, charged with separate drug possession counts with the intent to distribute, as well as with failing to turn it over to law enforcement and possession of drug paraphernalia.
IMAGES: Courtesy ROCHELLE PARK PD
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