The Mercer County Narcotics Task Force seized $140,000 in heroin last week and arrested a 39-year-old Trenton man, Mercer County Prosecutor Angelo J. Onofri reported.
Officials say after receiving information that Erik Pinto-Polanco would be moving a large quantity of heroin for distribution purposes on Friday evening, detectives began surveillance of him.
Officials say at approximately 7:30 p.m., officers conducted a motor vehicle stop of Pinto-Polanco’s silver Nissan Quest without incident at Park Avenue and South Broad Street in Hamilton.
A New Jersey State Police trooper and his K9 partner, Odin, conducted a narcotic “sniff” of thevehicle. After Odin gave a positive indication for narcotics on the front passenger side door, detectives obtained a search warrant and found approximately 700 grams of heroin in the vehicle police said.
The seized narcotics have an approximate street value of $140,000. Cash totaling $685 found on Pinto-Polanco was seized along with his vehicle.
Police charged Pinto-Polanco with first-degree drug offenses. The prosecutor’s office has filed a motion to detain him.
The investigation was conducted by detectives from the Princeton, Hamilton and Trenton police departments, the NJSP and Drug Enforcement Administration HIDTA 3, under the command of the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Special Investigations Unit.
Despite having been charged, every defendant is presumed innocent until found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.