Car Stop Leads To Large Crack And Powder Cocaine Bust

EAST HAVEN, CT — Two patrol officers saw a Nissan Maxima missing a front license plate with illegally tinted windows leave a Frontage Road motel parking lot and pulled it over. They found 26 grams of packaged rock and powder cocaine, heroin, drug paraphernalia, cash and cell phones and arrested the two people in t he car, an 18-year-old girl and a 37-year-old man, police said.

According to East Haven Police Lt. Joe Murgo, at around 11:30 Monday morning, officers Kyle Savo and Jon Trinh were patrolling the Frontage Road area when they saw the car leaving the Quality Inn Motel parking lot and pulled it over at the East Frontage Road and I-95 off ramp. Murgo said when the officers spoke with Maurice Mitchell, of Hamden, and Jayla Torres, of West Haven, "it was evident that the two didn’t know each other’s real names."

Murgo said that the cops had the two get out of the car and one noticed a "prescription pill bottle sticking out of Mitchell’s jacket pocket." Police found a baggie with several smaller zip-lock bags of crack. They also found three sandwich-size bags of powder cocaine and two more larger bags containing crack in Mitchell’s possession.

They placed him under arrest. They also found several cell phones, cash and other drug paraphernalia, including glass crack pipes. Police said the young woman, Torres had heroin on her. She too was arrested.

Murgo said that in all, officers seized "40 glassine baggies of suspected crack cocaine, three additional bags of suspected c and four bags of suspected powder cocaine with an overall total weight of approximately 26.38 grams."

Mitchell was charged with possession of narcotics, and possession of narcotics with intent to sell. He was released on $50,000 bond and is due in court Dec. 12 in New Haven.

Torres was charged with possession of narcotics, possession of narcotics with intent to sell and tampering with evidence. She was released on $5,000 bond and is also due in court Dec. 12 in New Haven.