Santa Rosa stop nets drugs, gun, cash hidden under teen passenger
Santa Rosa police making a routine traffic stop seized a gun hidden under a seated teenage girl, along with drugs and cash.
The driver, identified as Carlos SantanaSanchez, 18, was arrested and charged with eight crimes, including felony child endangerment because of the 17yearold passenger, police said. Police did not immediately respond to a question about the relationship between the two.
The arresting officer initially pulled the car over for allegedly failing to come to a full stop at a red light at about 11 p.m. Friday, a police statement said. The statement said the officer discovered the driver was wanted on an outstanding warrant and took him into custody.
In the car, the officer found a .40caliber semiautomatic “ghost gun” — unregistered and nonserialized — loaded with a 15round magazine under a blanket the girl was sitting on. The officer also recovered a baggie with about 30 pills believed to be either oxycodone or counterfeit drugs laced with fentanyl, the powerful and deadly drug than that’s said to be partly responsible for skyrocketing overdoses in San Francisco.
Police said the car also contained other pills, marijuana, a digital scale and packaging material commonly used in narcotic sales, and more than $2,500 in cash.
In addition to the warrant, the officer booked Santana-Sanchez on gun and narcotics charges and alleged child endangerment for storing a loaded firearm and dangerous narcotics within the vicinity of a minor.