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Officer Christopher Fasulo as on routine patrol when he spotted the 2003 Cadillac with temporary New Jersey license plates with the driver’s side door open and two occupants inside around 2:30 a.m., Police Chief James, N. Batelli said.
Fasulo smelled marijuana and spotted several cellphones in the car as the driver, 29-year-old ex-con James J. Miller of Paterson, and the passenger, a relative of his from Florida named Jaeson M. Grant, 21, told him they were both staying at the hotel, Batelli said.
Backups arrived and a computer check turned up an active warrant for Miller out of Paramus.
In the front of the car officers found rubber-banded bundles of wax paper folds of heroin and a small amount of marijuana, the chief said. In back they tunred up four brick-sized heroin packages, he said.
[In New Jersey, a bundle is 10 bags. A brick is 50 bags – or five bundles.]
The officers also found an acquaintance of both men, 26-year-old Sharissa Edwards Manning, in a second-floor room of the hotel, the chief said.
She was wearing an ankle bracelet that allowed her to remain free on bail following a previous arrest out of Passaic County – and had three outstanding warrants, he said.
A search of the room turned up a .357 Smith and Wesson handgun, Batelli said. Officers also seized $2,200 in suspected drug proceeds, he said.
A judge later set $250,000 bail for Miller and $150,000 for Grant – both of whom were charged with various drug offenses. Miller also was charged with various weapons counts, including being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Both men were taken to the Bergen County Jail. Edwards-Manning was turned over to Passaic County authorities.
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