Traffic Stop in Asbury Park Leads to Major Drug Bust
A routine traffic stop on Monday led to a major cocaine and heroin bust as well as $425,000 in drug money. Two Asbury Park residents were arrested earlier this week on numerous drug charges including drug possession, money laundering, and possession of drug paraphernalia. Police conducted a routine traffic stop based on a motor vehicle violation and observed what they believed to be heroin in the vehicle. As a result, police conducted a search and seized 40 bricks of heroin from the vehicle with a street value of approximately $12,000. Then, police obtained a search warrant to search the suspect's residence and seized a significant amount of cocaine, heroin, and drug money. Both suspects are being held at the Monmouth County Jail with significant bail amounts. For additional information, see "Traffic stop leads to seizure of drugs".
It will be interesting to see what the probable cause for the initial traffic stop was. The article merely says "a violation of a motor vehicle regulation." Further, the police also were only allowed to search the vehicle if the drugs were in fact in "plain view". Otherwise, they were not permitted to search the vehicle based on an ordinary motor vehicle stop. It does not appear that the individual was under arrest based on the initial stop so the police could not conduct a search incident to arrest or impound the vehicle based on the arrest of the driver.
