State police said they found four kilos of cocaine when they stopped a driver on Interstate 84 who was not wearing a seatbelt and drove over the solid line.
A state trooper was behind the 2002 blue Dodge Durango driven by Luiz Palacios Ortiz. 43, of Mount Joy, Pennsylvania on Hamilton Avenue in Waterbury just before 7 p.m. Monday and saw Ortiz was not wearing a seatbelt, according to state police.
Connecticut state law requires drivers, passengers in the front seat and children between 4 and 16 who are traveling in the back seat to wear seatbelts.
The state trooper then followed Ortiz onto Interstate 84 East and noticed him swerve over the solid line into the right shoulder, police said, so the trooper then stopped him.
When state police checked Ortiz’s truck, they found a bag in the back seat that held four kilos of cocaine, police said.
Ortiz was charged with possession of a narcotic, illegal sale of drug by a non-drug-dependent person, failure to wear a seatbelt, failure to drive in a proper lane and operating a motor vehicle without a valid license.
He was held on $250,000 bond and is due in Waterbury Superior Court today.
