Early this morning around 12:38AM, officers from District B-2 (Roxbury) working in plain clothes in an unmarked car were patrolling the area of Washington, Dudley St and Warren Streets (Dudley Triangle) when they were almost hit by a gray minivan that abruptly drove onto Washington Street from Ruggles St. without stopping for the posted stop sign. Officers had to slam on their brakes to avoid getting hit by the minivan.
Officers conducted a traffic stop as a result of the above infraction at the intersection of Washington St. and Melnea Cass Boulevard. Officers approached the minivan and while talking to the operator detected a strong odor of marijuana coming from the car. While getting the driver’s information, officers observed a marijuana “roach” in the passenger door area where there was a passenger seated. Having made the above observations, and believing that there may be additional marijuana in the car, officers asked the occupants of the car to exit the car. As the driver got out of the car, officers clearly detected a strong odor of marijuana on his person and noticed a large bulge in jacket pocket. When questioned about the bulge in his pocket, the suspect answered, “Those are Percocets!” The item was removed from the suspect’s pocket and determined to be a plastic bag containing what turned out to be 98 blue pills later determined to be Percocets.
The passenger was asked to exit the car as he also a strong odor of marijuana coming from his person. Officers asked the passenger as he was getting out of the car if he had anything on him that he shouldn’t and he answered, “All I got is money, like 8 or 9 thousand.” Officers, at this time, based on the drugs found on the driver, the manner in which they were packaged, the large amount of money on the passenger formed the opinion the two were engaged in some kind of drug dealing. The decision was made at that time to place the driver under arrest for the drugs and after he was placed in handcuffs, officers discovered that he had a loaded semi-automatic handgun on his person along with a plastic bag containing 47 individually packaged smaller Ziploc bags of marijuana and a several hundred dollars.
Both occupants of the car were placed under arrests and transported to District 2 for booking. Suspect, Kevin Fernandez, the driver, 17 of Roslindale was arrested and charged with Unlawful Possession of a Firearm, Unlawful Possession of Ammunition, Unlawful Possession of a Loaded Firearm, Possession of Class, Possession with Intent to Distribute Class B, Possession with Intent to Distribute Class B in a School Zone. The passenger of the car, Luis D. Ramos, 32, of Allston was also arrested and charged with Possession of Class, Possession with Intent to Distribute Class B, Possession with Intent to Distribute Class B in a School Zone.
Once at the station, a police canine trained in search for drugs determined that the money found on suspects had been in or around drugs.