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Officer Derek Mattessich pulled over a speeding car that was weaving along Reichelt Road just before 10:30 Friday night shortly after Detective Kevin Van Saders spotted the driver involved in what looked to be a drug buy, Papapietro said.
The driver, 29-year-old Dim Akopian, “appeared nervous and was shaking,” the chief said.
He was also evasive answering questions, he said, so the officers patted him down for their safety.
“A bulge was felt in his front pocket that turned out to be $200 in cash wound in a rubber band,” Papapietro said.
The officers then summoned a Bergen County Police Department drug detection dug, who gave an immediate indication, the chief said. They, in turn, got Akopian’s consent to search the car, he said.
Akopian “could not give a valid explanation” for where or how he got the $4550, which Papapietro said the officers found in the glove compartment.
In the center console, he said, they found several zip-locking plastic baggies, each containing different types of pills, as wells as several empty bags.
Found in the vehicle were 336 pills and four small bags of an unknown white powder, Papapietro said.
The pills included Oxycodone, Viagra, hydrochloride, alprazolam, amphetamine, hydrocodone, buspirone hydrochloride, morphine, and clear capsule pills filled with what police believe was Molly.
Police then searched Akopian’s nearby Reichelt Road apartment, where Papapietro said they found an unregistered .44-caliber revolver, assorted ammunition including hollow point bullets, a stun gun, 1460 assorted pills, three ounces of cocaine, nine ounces of Molly and bogus prescription blanks.
Akopian was being held on $265,000 bail in the Bergen County Jail.
He faces charges of:
- unlawful possession of an unregistered handgun;
- illegal possession of hollow-nosed bullets;
- possession of a stun gun;
- weapons possession while committing a drug crime;
- criminal attempt to distribute methylenedioxymethamphetamine;
- criminal attempt to distribute cocaine;
- illegal possession of prescription drugs;eight separate drug possession offenses;six counts of manufacturing, distributing or dispensing drugs;
- forgery
- possession of drug paraphernalia.
He also received summonses for careless driving and drug possession in a motor vehicle.
IMAGES: Courtesy NEW MILFORD PD
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