Traffic stop leads to Newbury drug arrest

Dave Rogers, The Daily News of Newburyport, Mass.
·3 min read

Mar. 30—NEWBURY — State police say a defective license plate light led to a Methuen man's arrest on drug distribution charges and a judge's order to hold him on $1,500 cash bail following his arraignment Monday in Newburyport District Court.

Raymond Irizarry, 26, of Strathmore Road was arrested Friday about 9:30 p.m. on Route 1 and charged with possession of Class B and Class D substances to distribute, possession of a Class B substance, a vehicle light violation, operating a vehicle with a suspended license and not having an inspection sticker.

State Trooper Jack Donaldson was driving on Route 1 near Boston Road when he saw a van heading south with a license plate that was not illuminated. Donaldson checked the license plate number and discovered the vehicle had an expired inspection sticker.

The trooper pulled over Irizarry just north of Boston Road. As Donaldson spoke to Irizarry, the trooper noticed the smell of burned marijuana coming from within the van.

"I asked him how much marijuana he had in the vehicle and he stated 'not that much,'" Donaldson wrote in his report.

Donaldson soon learned Irizarry's driver's license was suspended, prompting the trooper to tell him his van would be towed.

Donaldson searched the van before it was towed and found six bags filled with marijuana, a bag containing cocaine and another bag with crack cocaine, according to the trooper's report.

Donaldson also found a digital scale with white powder on it. Inside a red Gucci handbag, Donaldson found a large amount of cash.

"The plastic sandwich bags, digital scales, individually wrapped suspected crack cocaine, large amounts of marijuana and large quantity of U.S. currency are commonly associated with distribution of illegal narcotics," Donaldson wrote in his report.

The report does not say how much cash was found.

The drugs were weighed at the Newbury state police barracks. The six bags of marijuana weighed 6.2 ounces, the crack cocaine weighed 3 grams, and the cocaine weighed about 14 grams, according to Donaldson's report.

Essex County prosecutor Erin McAndrews said when weighed together, the cocaine and crack cocaine came just 1 gram short of Irizarry facing a more serious drug trafficking charge. For that reason, and Irizarry's history of not showing up for court appearances, she asked Judge Allen Swan to impose $2,500 cash bail.

Irizarry's attorney, Anthony Papoulias, asked for $500 cash bail and said his client's two court defaults, both taking place during the same case in 2011, were the result of situations beyond his control.

The first default arose after a court gave him the wrong date to appear. The second default was a result of Irizarry being hospitalized after a car crash.

Swan met the attorneys halfway, setting bail at $1,500 and ordering Irizarry to return to court April 30 for a pretrial hearing.

Dave Rogers is a staff writer with The Daily News. Email him at: drogers@newburyportnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @drogers41008.

Recommended Stories

  • COVID curbs having less impact at keeping Parisians at home: data

    The French government's anti-COVID-19 measures are having half the impact in encouraging Parisians to stay at home as the restrictions in France's first lockdown, data shows, underscoring why epidemiologists say the curbs are too weak to stop a third wave of infection over-running hospitals. The data reflects the tough reality confronting President Emmanuel Macron, who, according to one source close to the government, will have to decide on Wednesday whether to resort once again to a draconian lockdown that risks upending economic activity. "We have to limit the spread of the virus and we won't do that with these half-measures," said Gilles Pialoux, head of infectious diseases at the Tenon hospital in Paris.

  • Iran braces for new COVID surge triggered by New Year celebrations

    Iran said on Tuesday a fourth wave of the coronavirus pandemic had taken hold in western and central areas of the country, triggered by widespread travel and celebrations during the current Iranian New Year holidays. "A fourth coronavirus wave has definitely begun in many parts of the west and centre of the country and is advancing towards the east," Health Ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari told state television. Iran, the pandemic's epicentre in the Middle East, has reported a total of almost 1.9 million cases and 62,569 deaths.

  • Woman wins fishing trip at Pennsylvania church raffle — but told it’s for ‘men only’

    The church said the trip was limited to men as “a matter of personal standards and protection and there was no intent of discrimination.”

  • Fact check: Judge did not rule Dominion Voting Systems machines engineered to yield fraud

    A post falsely claims Dominion Voting Systems machines were designed to create fraud, a claim that appears to originate in a discredited report.

  • Thai police charge politician for insulting king over vaccine remarks

    Thai police on Tuesday charged banned opposition politician Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit with defaming the monarchy, after he accused the government of relying too much on a royal-owned company to produce its supply of coronavirus vaccines. Police said Thanathorn had committed lese majeste in a Facebook Live stream during which he said the government had mishandled the vaccine campaign and given an unfair advantage to Siam Bioscience, owned by King Maha Vajiralongkorn. The complaint was lodged by Prime Minister's Office official Aphiwat Khantong, police said.

  • Obama staffers amazed at how 'different' Biden's approach to stimulus is

    "This is just incredibly different," says Heidi Shierholz, an Obama DOL veteran. Other staffers from the last Democratic administration agree.

  • Trump's heir? Pence reemerges, lays groundwork for 2024 run

    When former President Donald Trump was asked to list those he considers the future leaders of the Republican Party, he quickly rattled off names including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Sens. Conspicuously absent from the list: Mike Pence. For someone who built a reputation as one of Trump's most steadfast supporters, Pence is now viewed with suspicion among many Republicans for observing his constitutional duty in January to facilitate a peaceful transfer of power to the Biden administration, a decision that still has Trump fuming.

  • Moderna, Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines 90% effective in real-world conditions, CDC says

    We also may have the answer to another key question that could have a big impact on life after vaccination.

  • The minimum wage would be $44 an hour if it had grown at the same rate as Wall Street bonuses

    Bonuses in the white-dominated finance industry have grown by more than 1,200% since 1985, while the federal minimum wage barely doubled.

  • AstraZeneca shots halted in parts of Germany for under-60s

    Several health authorities in Germany announced Tuesday that they are again suspending the use of AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine for residents under age 60 amid fresh reports of unusual blood clots in people who recently received the shots. Officials in Berlin, Munich and the eastern state of Brandenburg took the decision to temporarily halt vaccinations ahead of a meeting later Tuesday of representatives from Germany’s 16 states. The country’s medical regulator said it had received a total of 31 reports of rare blood clots in recent recipients of the AstraZeneca vaccine by March 29.

  • Miami man arrested after 12-year-old boy raped and shot in face, police say

    A 43-year-old man was arrested Tuesday in connection with the abduction, rape and shooting of a 12-year-old boy in Brownsville, police said.

  • Nike sues company that made 'Satan Shoes' with Lil Nas X

    Athletic shoe maker Nike Inc on Monday sued a New York-based company that produced "Satan Shoes" purported to contain a drop of human blood as part of a collaboration with "Old Town Road" rapper Lil Nas X. Nike said in the lawsuit that the company, MSCHF Product Studio Inc, infringed on and diluted its trademark with the black-and-red, devil-themed shoes, which went on sale online on Monday. Lil Nas X is not named as a defendant in the suit.

  • All members of South Africa's ANC charged with corruption must step aside or face suspension - Ramaphosa

    All members of South Africa's governing African National Congress (ANC) party who have been charged with corruption or other serious crimes must step aside within 30 days, or else face suspension, President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Monday. Allegations of corruption against party members including Ace Magashule, secretary-general and one of the six most powerful officials of the ANC, have deepened fault lines within the party that has ruled South Africa since the end of white minority rule in 1994.

  • Man Arrested On Hate Crime Charges For Threatening Elderly Asian Woman in NYC

    A man, 48, has been arrested for harassing an elderly Asian woman, 65, in Midtown Manhattan over the weekend, according to police. Bobby Eli was arrested one day after the incident occurred on Friday and has been charged with second-degree aggravated harassment and third-degree menacing. Both are being counted as hate crimes, police said.

  • Amazon is sending employees into the trenches on Twitter as it battles its first union vote and reports about workers peeing in bottles

    As reports of Amazon workers peeing in bottles resurface amid an ongoing unionization push, Amazon is again having employees defend it on Twitter.

  • Rachel Bilson says Rami Malek asked her to delete a throwback photo she posted from their high school days

    During an interview on "Armchair Expert With Dax Shepard," the actress said she was "a little bummed at how the situation was handled.

  • Texas lawmakers push for police reforms in response to Botham Jean shooting

    The bill addresses Texas’ castle doctrine and the use of body cameras by law enforcement during an investigation.

  • Police: Maryland man fatally shot 4, including parents, before killing self

    A man accused of shooting three people at a Maryland convenience store, killing two of them, also fatally shot his parents and set his apartment on fire before he shot and killed himself, police said.

  • 1,033 people sent us ideas on how to dislodge the Ever Given ship from the Suez Canal. Here are 19 of our favorite.

    Bet the 6% of you who wanted to just blow the boat up are feeling pretty pretty silly right about now.

  • First witness in Chauvin trial testifies she thought police camera froze because of how long he kneeled on George Floyd's neck

    The first witness in the murder trial of former Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin testified on Monday that while watching live police camera footage of George Floyd's arrest last May, she actually thought the video had frozen because of how long Chauvin was kneeling on his neck, The New York Times reports. Jena Scurry, a 911 dispatcher, took the stand as the prosecution played the video. In her testimony, Scurry recalled she couldn't tell precisely what was happening on the ground, but she said she grew concerned about how long the officers remained in the same position and eventually made the rare decision to call her supervisor and report the use of force. "My instincts were telling me that something's wrong," Scurry said Monday. New video from a fixed police camera across the street was also released at the trial. Jena Scurry, the first witness to take the stand, is the 911 dispatcher who had been watching the footage at the time. pic.twitter.com/qqodzrKA6H — Haley Willis (@heytherehaIey) March 29, 2021 Per the Times, the prosecution is "leaning heavily" on the argument that Chauvin kept his knee on Floyd's neck for nine minutes and 29 seconds, rather than the eight minutes, 46 seconds that the police originally claimed. Time-stamped police body-camera video has reportedly since shown the updated number. More stories from theweek.comThe case for trailer parksTexas Gov. Greg Abbott banned mask mandates. Nevertheless, Austin persisted.Hate cancel culture? Stop supporting the GOP.