A Paterson, New Jersey, man faces charges after investigators discovered $100,000 worth of cocaine in a hidden compartment in his sport utility vehicle, state police said.
Ruben Padilla, 41, was held in the Lackawanna County Prison on $250,000 bail after his arraignment Wednesday by Magisterial District Judge Laura Turlip on possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance and other offenses.
Padilla was taken into custody Tuesday afternoon after Cpl. Paul Lindsay, a trooper assigned to drug law enforcement division, spotted the hidden compartment while searching Padilla’s Chevrolet Equinox during a traffic stop on Interstate 84, state police said.
According the arrest affidavit, Lindsay pulled Padilla over on I-84 in Dunmore shortly after 2 p.m. because the dark tints on the Equinox prevented him from seeing inside the driver’s window. After the trooper issued Padilla a warning for the violation, the driver verbally agreed to a search of the SUV.
That is when Lindsay, who was familiar with the type of electronically hidden aftermarket compartment installed on the Equinox, checked under the rear cargo deck from beneath the bumper and confirmed the vehicle was equipped with one, police said.
The Equinox was towed to the Dunmore barracks, where investigators accessed the compartment and discovered a brick wrapped in green cellophane, the affidavit said. Containing a white substance that field-tested positive as cocaine, the brick weighed about 2.2 pounds, giving the seized drugs a street value of $100,000, state police said.
Padilla’s preliminary hearing is scheduled Oct. 21 at 9 a.m.
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