Police find guns, drugs in car

Two arrested after traffic stop

Two Kentucky women were in Berks County Prison after an Exeter Township policeman pulled over a car on Route 422 that wasn’t displaying a license plate and found loaded firearms and drugs, authorities said Monday,

Aug. 16.

Jasmine L. Shank, 26, of Louisville and Madison M. Hackett, 18, of Cecilia were jailed in lieu of $25,000 bail each to await a hearing following arraignment before District Judge Dean R. Patton in Reading Central Court.

According to the criminal complaint:

Officer Daniel Fox was eastbound on West Baumstown Road, which is Route 422, about 10:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 14, when he saw a car that wasn’t displaying a registration plate and had a blanket covering the majority of the rear windshield.

While speaking with Shank, who was driving, and her three passengers, Fox saw drug paraphernalia used for smoking marijuana on the rear passenger floor.

He eventually found a temporary Kentucky registration mounted on the rear windshield, but it was behind the blanket.

Fox asked Shank for her license, registration and proof of insurance. She provided a Kentucky application for a certificate of title and registration, but the form was incomplete.

Fox returned to his patrol vehicle to run the registration on the temporary plate. It was for a Freightliner truck, not a car. He also found an arrest warrant for Shank for marijuana possession, but it didn’t include out-of-state extradition.

Shank allowed Fox to search the car.

Officers found a .380-caliber handgun with a loaded magazine in a bag that belonged to Shank. Also in the bag, police found an unlabeled pill bottle that contained Xanax pills, a vape pen containing THC (the active agent in marijuana) and a plastic jar containing marijuana cigarettes.

Officers found another loaded .380-caliber pistol under the front passenger seat where Hacket was sitting. Hacket said she had bought the gun in Kentucky.

Officers found a backpack belonging to Hacket in the trunk that contained marijuana and various pills with no imprints.

They told police they were on their way to Philadelphia from some place in Pennsylvania about two hours away.

Both women were charged with carrying loaded firearms in a vehicle, carrying firearms without a permit, possessing marijuana and possessing a controlled substance by a person not registered. Shank was also charged with driving an unregistered vehicle, obstructed vehicle windows and window obstructions.