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Officers Benjamin Singer and Christopher Melber were on a roving DWI patrol shortly before 1:30 a.m. Tuesday when they saw a maroon Ford Fusion with New York license plates heading east on Essex Street with its high beams on, Detective Sgt. Matthew Parodi said.
After stopping the driver for not maintaining a lane, the officers smelled raw marijuana and obtained her consent to search the vehicle, Parodi said Friday.
They found a bag belonging to her passenger containing 10 orange plastic containers of pot, along with five bags of the drug, a digital scale and the ledger, the sergeant said.
The officers also found Xanax and Buspirone Hyrdochloride, as well as a bottle of 120 anti-seizure pills known as Levetiracetam prescribed to someone else, a stolen credit card and a set of rubber gloves, he said.
They also discovered that the driver, 36-year-old Zena Soto of Brooklyn, was wanted by the NYPD on a no-bail warrant for burglary from earlier this month, Parodi said.
Her passenger, George Rodriguez, 40, was processed on various drug charges and released to the Palisades Interstate Parkway police for failing to answer a traffic summons.
Soto, meanwhile, was taken to the Bergen County Jail, where she remained Friday pending extradition proceedings.
She also faces charges in Maywood of illegal possession of a prescription drug, credit card theft and possession of burglary tools.
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