Drugs, Cash Found in Car Towed for Unpaid Parking Tickets

A New Rochelle man whose car was towed away for having unpaid parking tickets in Port Chester was hit with a drug possession charge after 26 bags of marijuana were found in the car, according to Port Chester Police.

The car, a Cadillac, was spotted as a scofflaw by Port Chester Police Officer Daniel Disimone, who was on patrol using an electronic license plate reader. Disimone got a "hit" on the car as he was driving a patrol car on Haseco Avenue at about 12:41 p.m. on Monday.

Port Chester Police Lt. James Ladeairous said the owner of the Cadillac, Jamel Quarterman, 24, of 16 Locust Ave., New Rochelle, owed $220 for parking violations in Port Chester. As a result, Disimone called for a tow truck to impound the car.

Ladeairous said that when a door to the Cadillac was opened there was a strong odor of marijuana. An inventory of the car discovered 26 bags of marijuana and $470 cash in a door pocket, Ladeairous said.

Later on Monday, Quarterman went to Port Chester Police Headquarters to ask about his car. First, police told him to go next door to the village parking enforcement office to pay off his tickets and the cost of the tow. Ladeairous said that Quarterman returned to Police Headquarters a short time later to show that he had paid off the tickets. That's when Quarterman was arrested on a charge of fifth-degree criminal possession of marijuana, a misdemeanor.

Quarterman faces a hearing in Port Chester Village Court on April 18.