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ONLY ON CVP: A car that blew by a Mahwah police officer on Route 17 contained a quarter-pound of pot, $5,000 in cash and a pit bull that left cops a bit unsettled, Chief James Batelli said.
Officer Chris Fasulo pulled over the car, which had Connecticut license plates and an obscured front windshield, and “detected a strong odor of raw marijuana and also observed a small amount of drug paraphernalia in the center console,” the chief told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.
Besides the female driver and male passenger was the pit bull, prowling the back seat with dog food scattered on the rear floor, Batelli said.
“There aren’t a lot of officers who are going to go search a car with a pit bull lying in the back seat and try to take the dog away from the food that is lying on the floor,” the chief told CLIFFVIEW PILOT, “but that’s what officers are trained to recognize as a flag.
“[It’s] exactly what people transporting drugs do.”
Backup officers helped separate the couple — who gave conflicting stories on where they’d been and were headed — as well as the dog, who became agitated when they began searching the vehicle with the owner’s consent, Batelli told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.
Besides the pot and cash, the officers found a digital scale and other paraphernalia used to sell pot, he said.
The passenger, Jordan J. Fletcher of Connecticut, was charged with possession of marijuana with the intent to distribute the drug, possession of drug paraphernalia and other narcotics counts, the chief said.
Police gave the driver, Allison DuPont, a bunch of motor vehicle summonses, he said.
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