Two Brooklyn men had a powdery ball of drugs while driving through Ridgewood, and they wound up dropping it to cops after being pulled over for a broken tail light on Wednesday night, police said.
Officers from the 104th Precinct on patrol in the area of Starr Street and Woodward Avenue observed a black 2003 Acura sedan traveling through the intersection with a defective right tail light at 10:45 p.m. on Feb. 15, law enforcement sources said.
Authorities noted that the officers pulled the vehicle over and found Bushwick’s Rafael Nieves, 29, of Montrose Avenue sitting behind the wheel and Elier Barreto, 43, of Wilson Avenue in the passenger seat.
Police said Nieves did not have a valid driver’s license. Upon inspecting both Nieves and Barreto, sources said, they recovered from them a large ball of an unidentified narcotic — possibly cocaine or heroin — in their possession along with a small amount of marijuana.
The ball of powder was taken to the NYPD lab for testing to determine what it is.
Nieves and Barreto were taken into custody at the scene and variously charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance and unlawful possession of marijuana.
Court records noted that both men were arraigned in Queens Criminal Court on Feb. 16; Nieves was ordered held on $50,000 bond or $25,000 cash, while Barreto’s bail was set at $5,000 bond or $2,500 cash. They are due back in court on March 2.
Great job by our anti-crime team for removing these drugs from the streets #NYPDprotecting pic.twitter.com/X4RxD14AGP
— NYPD 104th Precinct (@NYPD104Pct) February 17, 2017
Wednesday’s incident was the latest in a series of reported traffic stops-turned-drug busts across Queens in recent weeks. Some of the culprits initially caught for breaking a traffic law were found to have crack, marijuana and even prescription medication.
