59°
Detectives Luis Roca and Joseph Aboyoun were watching a group gathered around a car at the corner of Clinton and North 6th Streets when it suddenly pulled away, Paterson Public Safety Director Jerry Speziale said.
They notified fellow Detectives John Traynor, Kenneth Kerwin and Mustafa Dombayci, who stopped the vehicle near the corner of Mattock and Temple streets.
They found a .357-caliber Glock semi-automatic pistol along with 59 vials and 18 baggies of crack, Speziale said.
Front-seat passenger Quincy Franklin, 24, was charged with having the gun. Rear-seat passenger Mazeik Lawson, 26, was charged with the drugs.
The driver was later released without charges. Franklin and Lawson, meanwhile, were sent to the Passaic County Jail to await first appearances in Central Judicial Processing Court in Paterson.
A few nights later, Dombayci and Detective Wisam Salmeh said they saw 28-year-old ex-con Gary Cabrera toss a large gun along a nearby fence line as they approached him near the corner of 20th Avenue and Summer Street.
Then he bolted, they said.
The detectives chased down Cabrera in the 140 block of Beech Street, Speziale said. They also recovered a 9mm Glock semi-automatic pistol with a 31-round high-capacity magazine, the director said.
Cabrera was sent to the Passaic County Jail after the detectives charged him with various weapons and ammo offenses -- including being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm -- as well as resisting arrest.
Both guns were sent to the New Jersey State Police for ballistics analysis to determine whether they might have been fired in crimes.
Click here to follow Daily Voice Highland Lakes-Vernon and receive free news updates.
