Noisy muffler leads to bust
WOONSOCKET – The car was unregistered but it was a loud muffler that really drove the pair’s alleged marijuana business off the road.
Michael Anthony Roy and Damon Francis Amero, both
20, of Woonsocket, are facing charges of possession with the intent to distribute a controlled substance and conspiracy after police stopped their car on Diamond Hill Road Monday for what started out as a routine motor vehicle infraction. Officers ended up seizing nearly 10 ounces of marijuana in individually wrapped bags from the vehicle, more than $2,300 in cash, plus assorted drug-packaging paraphernalia.
The 2003 Infiniti Roy was driving initially caught the attention of police shortly after 9:30 p.m., when it passed Officers Andrew Girard and Hank Leitzke with a loud exhaust. The vehicle quickly pulled into Papa Gino’s in the shopping center at 1500 Diamond Hill Road and parked, at which point the officers approached the occupants.
Even though the pizza parlor was closed, the two men told the officers they
were there to get food. :hen the officers asked Amero and Roy why the smell of unburnt marijuana was wafting from their vehicle, they admitted being in possession of some and each of the men handed over one bag of marijuana to the policemen.
As the officers were conducting a pat down of the two men prior to placing them in handcuffs, they felt a large wad of money in the pockets of each of them. Roy was carrying $1,320, Amero, $1,030, according to the officers’ reports.
Because Roy’s vehicle also turned out to be unregistered, police called for a tow after placing the men in custody, searching the car before it was removed from the scene. That was when police found a large glassine bag of marijuana that contained at least eight smaller, individually wrapped packets of marijuana, each of them weighing within a couple of grams of an ounce. Police seized a total of . ounces of marijuana, including the two bags the men allegedly surrendered. In a shoebox in the back seat area, police also located a digital scale and more packaging supplies, they said.
In addition to the drug offenses, Roy was charged with third-offense driving on a suspended license. 3olice also issued him a summons to the Rhode Island Traffic Tribunal for driving with a defective exhaust. After an appearance in Sixth District &ourt, both men were released on $10,000 bail with surety pending another court appearance on Aug. 20, according to the judiciary’s web site.